Looking Inward: Zuko is the Avatar AU
by Lea23S17
Summary: ON HIATUS. SORRY- SHOULD HAVE SAID SOONER. WILL CONTINUE SOON.) Zuko only thought his life was challenging. With his new title as The Avatar, a new path of destinies will be traveled. He must now master the four elements before the end of summer before his father destroys the balance he must now protect.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

 **Most of the dialogue and events from this chapter is from the original episode 'Boy in the Iceberg' and 'The Avatar Returns'. As this story progresses it will deviate more from Aang's Avatar story line. Some events will stay the same but will be altered by Zuko's presence and other characters' involvement later on. Zuko is going through a very big character shift so he will seem very OOC for a season one Zuko. It will become very apparent in this chapter. Some Chapters will be longer than others. I am going episode by episode. There will be a few where 2 will be clumped together in a way that is logical to me. I'm not going to really be apologizing if one chapter is shorter than the other. They will cover 1 episode. We didn't complain to Nickelodeon when our episodes ended before we wanted them to. Same with my chapters please. Updates will be a bit irregular. Since for the most part I am writing as I go. I will try to post as quickly as I can, there will be no 'update schedule' with this one. Sorry.**

 **Needless to say I do not own the characters nor any part of ATLA.**

 **Enjoy my take on Zuko is the Avatar AU.**

 ** _"It's time for you to start looking inward_**

 ** _and begin asking yourself the big questions._**

 ** _'Who are you?' and 'What do you want?'_**

 ** _-Iroh~ Lake Laogai_**

 _Water_

 _Earth_

 _Fire_

 _Air_

 _Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony, then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, the master of all four elements could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. One hundred years past and my brother and I discovered the last air bender of the Air Nomads. Not even he, knows where the Avatar is. A few strange occurrences later, and we found him. He has great skill and courage, but we know he has a lot to learn before he is ready to save anyone. But I believe, Zuko can save the world._

Book 1: Water

The Boy in the Iceberg, and the Avatar Returns

Zuko stared out at the half frozen sea. This had been the third time he had seen it. There was nothing new; however, he was determined to find something out of place that could point to the reclusive Avatar. He scowled as his uncle started to hum again, too absorbed in his game to realize he was grating on his nephew's nerves. "Uncle…" he growled.

"What is it Prince Zuko?"

"You're humming again, quit it."

They lapsed back into silence and Zuko continued to stare out at sea, squinting as the light reflected off the ice, half blinding him. He wasn't sure how long he stood there, his posture stiff and ridged, his armor began to feel heavy but he couldn't bring himself to care. Once he captured the Avatar, he wouldn't need it. He would be in his palace, with his silk robes, and servants. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, missing the turtle-duck pond. He scowled as the thought of Azula destroying it entered his mind. He opened his eyes as a gust of wind picked up, then, unexpectantly, a large white light beam shot into the air, wolf-seals howled in the distance, disturbed by the strange light.

"Finally…" he whispered. "Uncle, do you realize what this means!?" he said, trying to contain his excitement, months and months of disappointment kept him grounded. If only slightly.

"That I don't get to finish my game?" he asked, somewhat airily.

Zuko turned from him, staring at the light, memorizing its location, "It means that my search is finally coming to an end." His uncle gave a tired sigh and placed the next tile in his game down on the small table. Unpassed Zuko continued, "That light came from a very powerful source, it has to be him!"

"Or it's just the celestial lights," he said, gesturing to the icebergs littering the water in haphazard mazes, "we have been down this road before Prince Zuko. I don't want you to get too excited over nothing." His uncle still didn't stop with the airy, yet wise tone, he uttered these words before, and they never failed to make nerves flare up in Zuko's gut thinking he failed again. He placed another title down on his table, and gave a kind smile, "Please, sit." His uncle invited with a small wave of his hand. "Why don't you enjoy a cup of nice, calming Jasmine tea?" his uncle's smile didn't falter and his voice took on its dreamy tone, as it always did when his favorite beverage came into question.

Zuko felt the small vain in his forehead throb and he whipped around, "I don't need any calming tea!" he shouted. "I need to capture the Avatar!" He looked up, "Helmsmen!" he called, looking up at the uppermost part of his ship, "Set a course for the light!"

Zuko turned again to face forward missing his uncle's passive stare and him setting yet another title on his table. Iroh watched as they rattled ominously in the increased wind.

After dinner, Zuko made his way up to the balcony, they sun had set as far as it could this time of year. It was slightly comforting to see it still this late in the evening, but it also hurt to have it so far away. It was nothing compared to the blistering, yet blissful heat of his homeland. He stiffened at his uncle's footsteps and continued to stare out at sea. He hated blue. He would make the color illegal once he became Fire Lord so her would never have to see it again, and remind him of the sea. "I'm going to bed now." His uncle made a show of stretching and yawning loudly. "Yep. A man need's his rest," he straightened up and hid his hands back in his large sleeves. With the concern any guardian would have over their charge would have, made his tone very serious. "Prince Zuko, you need to sleep, even if you are right, and the Avatar is alive, you won't find him." His uncle said firmly, but still holding a kind and respectful tone. To further his point to his nephew's stiff back, he continued, "Your father, grandfather, and great grandfather have all tried, and failed."

"Because." Zuko bit out, "Their honor, didn't hinge on the avatar's capture. Mine does." The thought of his horribly scared face came to mind's eye, with a determined set in his jaw, and a pose of higher confidence, he growled, "this coward's one hundred years of hiding is over."

Once he retired to his quarters much later after his uncle left him alone to think on the balcony, he sat down on his bed and continued to think. He rubbed some feeling back into his cold feet. He was stupid to go out there barefoot, his bending kept him away from frostbite, but he felt the slight sting as he rubbed his feet with warmed hands. Glancing around his room he scowled. It was a far cry from his spacious four poster, lush tapestries, and bed curtain. He fingered the flimsy blanket. It was this time of the day he hated most. Zuko hadn't seen that room in years; it had faded some from memory. The thought made him uncomfortable. He grabbed something on the low table by his mat and scooted to the corner of his bed and leaned against the cool metal wall, he pulled his blanket up around him, and fingered one his most treasured possessions in his hand. He unsheathed the dagger, flipping it over to see the inscription on both sides of the white purl weapon, the characters for "made in the Earth Kingdom," and his motto for life "Never give up without a fight" flashed in the low lighting. Words of his mother floated back to him and he sat there, trying to remember the words without the painful twinge in his chest. _"You keep fighting even though it's hard_. _"_ the added memory of the intimidating glares of his grandfather made him shudder. He clicked the sheath back into place and moved down in his bed and wrapped the blanket tightly around him, still clutching his dagger. He slowly sank into sleep with at least a hope of returning home in a vague blissful dream.

He stood in the never ending sunrise, trying to hide the fact he was panting heavily, this would be the sixty fourth time on this one set he couldn't seem to get right. "Again." His uncle said in a firm voice, he took a breath and put his arms out shooting fire from both fists at his spar -mates, and ducked, kicking himself into the air with a small burst of flame to boost him over the other spar-mates, tucking into a loose flip, while firing another blast of fire at the one on his other fist. He landed in a mirror image of his last stance, arms still outwards towards his 'opponents,' and chin still tucked in from his leap and mid-air turn. His jaw was set, ' _sixty five…'_ "No!" his uncle shouted, exasperated, even his uncle's patient demeanor had its limits. The old general stood, "The power in fire bending comes from the breath," he gestured to his diaphragm, "No the muscle." He extended an arm outward. Zuko stood at attention, giving his uncle his attention, but feelings of failure made him clinch his fists. "The breath becomes energy in the body," his uncle started moving through a very basic fire bending form, "the energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire." His uncle finished the form with a very week flame close to Zuko's face, not at all a danger to him. His uncle was too controlled and kind. The next comment made Zuko loose his short patience and temper. "Get it right this time." was his uncles' blunt finish.

"Enough, I have been drilling this sequence all day, teach me the next set, I am more than ready." He snapped, approaching his uncle a little gratified in his extra few inches in height over him.

"No, you are impatient." His uncle sat back in his low chair. "You have yet to master your basics." Then, in his stern voice his uncle only used when they were both ready to lose their tempers yelled, "Drill it again!"

Zuko bared his teeth with a growl and gave a fire blast from his foot, knocking one of his sparing partners flat on his back with the surprise attack. He stood closer to his uncle, looming over him. "The sages tell us, The Avatar is the last air bender. He must be over a hundred years old by now, he's had a century to master the four elements," he was right in his uncle's face as his voice grew in volume and slight desperation, "I will need more than basic fire bending to defeat him. You will teach me the advanced set!" he commanded, his voice rising to a shout.

His uncle closed his eyes in defeat. "Very well." Zuko resisted the urge to smirk in victory. "But first I must finish my roast duck." His uncle said with a smile and began shoveling the food in his mouth and at very unbecoming pace for someone who was once a prince himself. Zuko stepped back with a disgusted look on his face.

Later that day, Zuko was, as calmly as he could, peering through his looking glass, seeing if, and when the avatar would slip up and show himself. He was bound to show up eventually. Suddenly, a flare caught his eye; it shot up in the air, and started to fall in a slow arc back down. He followed the smoke trail and waited and was surprised to see and oddly dressed person carrying a young girl out of the top of a very old fire nation ship. It must have been one from their first raids on the South Pole. What caught his attention more was that the oddly dressed figure was air bending and the clothing looked like the Air Nomad clothes he had seen on mosaics on his searches in the other air temples; it had to be the Avatar. "Quiet agile for his old age." He mused. He turned to one of the nearby guards. "Wake my uncle; tell him I found the avatar." He turned back to his spy glass and followed the two running figures, and scanned the direction they were headed, and spotted a very small village with smoke rising from their fire pits. "As well as his hiding place." he couldn't believe his luck.

"I know what I saw Uncle! He was air bending, and even carrying some girl with him. They were inside an old fire-nation vessel from one of the first Southern Tribe raids."

"Zuko, please continue with caution, you don't know what the Avatar is capable of, if the air bender even is the Avatar…" his uncle amended.

Zuko leveled him with a glare. "He is…" then the look softened to that of a hopeful teenager. "He has to be."

His guards started helping him into his layers of armor. He stood tall in the boarding hull as his ship cut through the ice that lead directly into the village. He wasn't aware he was holding his breath until his uncle put a calming hand on his shoulder. "Energy from the breath, Nephew." He reminded. Zuko sighed.

"Thanks Uncle."

"Would you like me to go down there with you?" he offered.

"No…I 'll just go down with some guards. I'll be quick…then we can go home." There was a hiss and steam began to pour out as the machinery let the door fall open. What breath he did have froze in his chest as the warm air inside left, replaced by the bitter winds off the snow covered village. As he started his decent ne noticed the huddle of women and children standing together, holding one another. There were two siblings that caught his eye. They were knee high, and looked twice their size from their bundle of furs; the older brother by at least a year was holding his sister tightly. He held his jaw in a firm line and continued down the bridge. The village was small, and looked pitifully weak. Where were all the men?

A war cry caught his attention, and a boy, very close to his age, decked out in war paint came charging forward. Zuko rolled his eyes. No tact. He swiftly kicked the weapon out of his hands, boxing his ear in the process, and then kicked him aside where he landed head first in a pile of snow. The prince hardly broke stride. Audible gasps where echoing though the village. Obviously their warriors had little to no proper training. If this was all they had to protect them, this tribe was doomed. He stopped at good distance away. He wasn't sure why he stopped in front of the two siblings. Zuko did a quick look around through the crowd. Truly, not a man in sight. Could all of them really be off fighting in the war?

He moved his way closer to the group scanning all the faces, missing nothing. He stopped in front of a girl with wide blue eyes that were full of fear. It was the girl he saw earlier through his spy glass-yes, it defiantly was her. Zuko glared and straightened his shoulders more. "Where are you hiding him?" When he received no answer, he rolled his eyes and grabbed an old woman by the hood of her parka and pulled her over to him so she was standing in front of her village. More gasping. Like he would ever hurt her… "He would be about this age…" he prompted. "Master of all four elements?" he was only met with blank stares. Like they had no idea what the Avatar even was. He pushed the old woman back in the huddle with the other villagers. In frustration he let a wave of fire travel over their heads hoping the intimidation would get them to talk. They screamed. It was a bit pathetic. If he wanted to hit them with his fire, he would have. His aim wasn't that bad. "I know you're hiding him!" The same stupid war cry rose again, and he peeked behind him to see the water tribe boy charging at him again. His paint had washed off from his head dive in the snow earlier. Zuko ducked and tripped him, and his momentum sent him flying, landing on his backside a few feet away. Zuko would have chuckled any other time, right now, the kid was just a nuisance in his way of finding the avatar…but the boy was suspended in the air for almost a minute. He fired a poor aimed fire blast and the boy and he scrambled up with a cry of fear this time. The peasant rolled to his knees and reached behind him to unsheathe another weapon. Zuko was shocked as he had to duck as a shiny boomerang almost hit him square in the face. He scowled. The peasant didn't seem too upset his little toy flew by him and was probably lost in the ocean now. Then, one of the little boys with a large toothy grin on his face tossed the older 'warrior' a whale tooth, and bone spear.

"Show no fear!" he said in his childhood soprano.

Zuko hardly flinched as he was charged at with the pitiful excuse for a weapon. It wouldn't have penetrated his breast plate. He used his sharp wrist guard and jerked up, the whale tooth snapped clean off. Zuko yanked the bone shaft out of the boy's gloved hands and used the end to poke him in the forehead until he landed on his backside again. Zuko snapped the shaft in half and tossed it at the water tribe boy's feet. He sat there, like a moron, simply rubbing his forehead. Zuko glared down, waiting for him to get up. It wouldn't be honorable to win when they were on the ground looking pitiful like that. Did the boy have no sense?

He was startled, and in a little bit of pain when something metal clanged into his helmet, knocking it off kilter, his metal helmet was still ringing. The boomerang from before lodged it's self into the snow. Now with a pounding headache, he clenched his hands into fist, he felt fire building in his palms. He heard something sliding, from behind him and didn't have time to look because his feet where knocked clear out from under him and he landed in a very undignified manner, with his butt in the air, and his helmet soon landed on top.

He stood quickly and faced his attacker. The kids had been cheering, and now covered in a thin layer of snow. It had to have been the Avatar. Zuko took a deep breath, and faced the kid. Kid? It didn't make sense. The monk in orange had a goofy grin on his face as a seal-penguin pushed him off his back and waddled away. The air bender finally stood his staff in hand. He raised his hands as a signal for his soldiers to surround him. Confusion, anger, pressure, all the tiring emotions he felt in the past two years seemed to pile on his shoulders. The air bender quickly blew a lot of snow at them with a powerful gust. The attack was harmless, except maybe to the boy who dealt it. He had unwittingly proved he was the last air bender, as if the tattoo at his crown and nomadic clothes wasn't enough to go by alone.

"Looking for me?" the young kid asked bravely, his voice never wavered.

"You're the air bender?" Zuko finally questioned in disbelief, finding his voice, "You're the Avatar!" he exclaimed, there was no way. Did his training even mean anything anymore? All those years of preparation to face a child? He started the seethe. He didn't hear the few gasps as something started to rattle nearby. To his surprise, and everyone else's, a rock from the fire pit went flying, assumedly to its own accord. It landed in the middle between him, and the monk.

To his surprise, the monk seemed just as confused as Zuko was. "Um…no…You are…sorry?" he said, unsure about the apology tacked on at the end. "I'm just an air bender." The kid said, dropping his defensive posture and scratching the back of his head in clear confusion.

"But I'm just a fire bender!" Zuko shouted. "Men arrest him! He's the Avatar! He's lying!" The young prince was almost in hysterics. The young monk pointed his staff at the soldiers that circled him again, bracing his feet. The rocks were moving again. "Stop that!"

"I'm not doing anything, I swear. The Avatar that was born with the air nomad's died, there was an accident," Aang's voice trembled, tears gathering in his eyes slightly, "his glider ripped and he fell and couldn't stop himself in time, I couldn't even stop him in time." Aang blurted, his face turning red as he held back tears. "I'm not him…he was my friend…" he muttered the last bit, a pitiful ring to his very young voice. Too young…

Zuko paused a moment, as much as he wanted to, now was not the time to show compassion, he snarled, "Then why haven't we seen any other hints about the Avatar since then?" he circled Aang, who still had his staff raised and followed Zuko's movement. "I'm sure we would have seen him-"

"or her…" Katara muttered under her breath.

Zuko ignored her. "-traveling at some point to learn the other elements, even the sages would know."

"I don't know what happened to the other Avatars." Aang said calmly, resting his staff in the bend of his elbow, but still in easy each reach, he tried making peaceful hand gestures, hoping it would make everyone calm down. "But unless people are randomly able to bend two elements and not be the Avatar…then I think you're him." Aang said this with the upmost calm; the young prince was getting closer and closer to a small break down.

"I. Am. Not. HIM! I AM NOT THE AVATAR!" he came close to stomping his foot in the snow like his sister would have when she was at the age of her famous temper tantrums.

"That is quite enough Prince Zuko!" A voice said from the top of the ship, then the man it belonged to descend down the stairs.

A few gasps were heard, and the oldest woman mutter a horrified, "The Dragon of the West? Here?" She quickly and quietly started pushing more of the children behind her for the mothers to push them into tents.

Iroh stopped when he reached the bottom of the ramp and gave a respectful, peaceful bow, with his head lowered, he said in a clam, reassuring voice, "I promise you, I intend no harm on you or your village, I am just accompanying my nephew."

"You're still fire nation, and the fire nation is not allowed here! Leave now!" Sokka shouted, raising his boomerang over his head, ready to throw.

"I am sorry, this war has caused you pain. I promise I am doing everything I can to end it."

Sokka scoffed, "In your favor maybe. You are helping him capture the Avatar."

Iroh gave a kind smile. "You have much to learn, young man, but Zuko," he turned to his nephew, "you have even more." The old man sighed and after a moment of thought spoke again, "I have known you were the Avatar since the day you were born. Your mother knew too. We kept it secret from your father, and the sages, you are infact, the Avatar for the fire nation." Zuko paled, "And the world needs you to bring back balance, and peace to the world. You are ready Prince Zuko." The young prince stood there, unable to really comprehend his uncle's words. Then his uncle turned swiftly to the soldier's that surrounded the prince still, his voice grew dangerous, and was colder than the artic winds. "If word of this reaches the Fire Lord because of any one of you, your ashes won't even reach The Gates of Azulon. Are we clear?" Zuko never heard his uncles voice get that low and threatening, or ever suggest anything so violent. He was even a bit intimidated by the glare aimed at the soldiers. Every man nodded without hesitation, and gave a quick bow and a chorus of 'yes general.' "Good. Very good. Now, board the ship, and be ready for the next order, we have some business to attend to." The soldiers looked eager to be dismissed.

Zuko was still standing, remarkably, pale faced and breathing a bit irregularly, "Uncle…you knew?" he choked.

"Yes." His uncle said with a small smile. Then he turned and addressed the water tribe women. "I'm sorry for any harm or alarm we may have caused upon our arrival. Is there anything we can do?"

"Not come back?" Sokka bit out.

"Sokka, don't be rude." Katara said, smacking him. "Pardon my brother…sir…" Katara said with a shaky voice. "He doesn't know when to shut up sometimes." Katara tried to communicate quietly with her brother not to pick any more fights he couldn't win.

Iroh smiled, "Quiet alright, and Zuko, I believe you owe them an apology as well…I'm pretty certain I heard some startled screams down here…" Zuko blushed.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled, in a low mumble, giving a small bow in their direction, but avoiding eye contact.

Katara gave him a small smile. It was then she realized, he was hardly older than her brother. Acting braver than she felt she asked with a small voice, "Are you two hungry? We have some dinner ready…"

Zuko gave his uncle an uncertain glance, but he knew his uncle would never turn down a meal. "We would love too!" he said joyfully. His smile grew, "I even have some tea with me, I always keep some with me. A cup of tea always tastes better when shared with new friends." Zuko buried his face in his palm as his uncle continued. "I hope you don't mind that all I have with me is jasmine, I drank all my ginseng a week ago." He added the last bit with a pout.

It wasn't long until they all were sat around a small fire, bowls of stewed sea prunes in their laps and everyone had a cup of tea in their mittened hand, the old general was happy to track down enough tea cups on the boat so everyone could have their own cup, even the smallest child had a cup in her hands. There were even multiple decorative tea-pots heating by the fire. Zuko was siting sandwiched between the small monk and his uncle. All three of them were giving their bowls a very timid look that could easily be mistaken as fear.

"Have you tried it yet?" Aang whispered.

"No…you?" Zuko asked.

"Nope."

They gave their bowl another glance, and then at each other. They understood the look, to not insult the water tribe, and for Zuko to get out of trouble with these people, he had to make them happy. He and Aang both lifted their spoons of sea prunes to their mouths at the same time.

It was awful. It took almost three attempts to swallow. Then, the old lady, who happened to be the 'warrior' and the oldest girl's grandmother, stood. Apparently, she was acting Chief in her son in law's absence. "We haven't had outsiders visit our tribe in a long time." She eyed Zuko, Iroh, and the young monk warily. "Let alone friendly, outsiders." Zuko looked down sheepishly. "But The Avatar has officially returned to this world, regardless of what his birth nation is, we have all meet for a reason, and I think we should do what we can to help bring a peaceful end to this war."

"I would like to help too. I can fly, um...Prince Zuko to where ever he needs to master the other elements. Katara, we will still go by the North Pole, you'll still come right?" Aang asked hopefully, his eyes shining up at the young water bender.

Zuko turned interested to the young girl. "Are you a Water Bender?"

"Yeah. The last one in the South Pole." She answered a bit sheepishly.

Zuko looked mad for some reason, and then looked away. "Stupid Fire Nation…" The rest of the tribe was taken a bit aback. Zuko refused to stand while the woman was still in the position of power, so he quietly said, with his head lowered. "I am sorry again, for the fear I caused upon my arrival," he did his best to make his apology more sincere than before. "And the fear my nation has caused the world," he gulped a little, still afraid he was speaking out of turn. "I used to think, speaking out against what was wrong was fixed things, but I only got burned." he choked a little on his words. "The last few years have been rough on all of us. But I promise, I will change, it might take time, two years of hardship is a lot to overcome in a short amount of time, and I will help end the war, however a 100 year old scar is harder to heal. But I will do my best. I'm done letting innocent people down. It's not happening ever again." When he finished he finally looked up seeing the awed faces of the women and some of the older children around him.

"Prince Zuko, you have spoken wise beyond your years, I am so proud of you." Iroh said, gripping his nephew's shoulder. "I will cover for you while you travel the world learning the four elements." His uncle smiled. "I still expect you to practice your fire bending every day, and hopefully, you will find another master on the road to further your training."

Aang stood, and bowed respectfully to the elder woman, "Thank you for the meal," he had secretly dumped the rest of its contents into Zuko's bowl unseen. "But if we are to start the journey, I will need to prepare Appa a little bit; his saddle may be loose from the storm we were in when we crashed." With a polite nod to everyone he wondered away to his Sky Bison.

"So, young lady, you are traveling to learn water bending." Iroh asked with a smile, "The North will be a perfect place to learn, I hear it is beautiful up there. I wish you, luck."

"Th-thank you sir."

"You're not going alone Katara." Sokka spoke up. "I'm coming with you."

Katara gave a large grin and her brother a hug, but then, with a small frown, she pulled apart "But Sokka, Dad left you in charge."

Zuko resisted the urge to raise his eye brows. He seemed to be a bit young to be in charge of an entire village, then again, half of them were probably his cousins.

"He also told me to protect _you_. Gran-Gran can hold down the village just fine. There's no way I'm letting you go-alone." He puffed out his chest slightly.

Iroh placed his bowl down, his contents also secretly dumped in Zuko's bowl. "Well my Nephew, I am going to talk to the crew, and get some maps ready for you. Then I can help you get all your supplies together. Why don't you finish your supper and meet me back on the ship when you're done." He turned to the tribe, "please accept the tea pots and extra tea as thank you for your hospitality," he said patting the wooden crate of tea leaves he had Lieutenant Jee bring down "and thank you again for the meal." He said rubbing his large belly, a larger smile plastered on his face.

Zuko's eyes widened at his now completely full bowl. It hadn't been that full moments ago. It tried his best to eat it. One by one, the rest of the villagers got up to leave to do something productive with the rest of their sunlight hours. How many of them got less, just to feed him, his uncle and the monk and they hardly touched it. He sighed sadly. He couldn't do anything right.

"You don't like the stewed sea prunes. Do you?" the girl asked. Zuko looked up. She already had a back pack and a sleeping bag perched on her shoulders. "It's okay, you can just put it back in the pot. Gran Gran told me not many people outside the Water Tribes like them. We packed some seal jerky you might like better."

Zuko stood and spooned his bowl of sea prunes back into the pot. "I also have plenty of food we can pack from my ship. There's plenty of cured meats, rice and noodles to hold us over for quite some time."

"That's nice." Katara said with a smile. "My brother might befriend you yet. The more meat you give him the happier he'll be." Katara chuckled shaking her head. "So…ready to see the world?" she asked.

With a small frown he turned to the horizon, "I've seen it two times already."

"Two?" Katara asked, a bit awed.

"But I'm ready to enjoy it this time." A small crash caught his attention, "I think you're brother needs help."

A muffled "I'm okay!" could be heard from underneath a snow drift.

They all met up at the base of the fire nation ship. The siblings had already said goodbye to their grandmother and ready to leave, or somewhat ready, Sokka was throwing a glare at the ship as it personally offended him. The door opened and further packed in a heap of snow. Sokka grumbled on about a watchtower and Zuko shrugged it off. Aang peered inside excitedly. "I haven't been on a fire nation ship in forever…or a working one for that matter…"

Zuko glanced back at him a bit bewildered. "What were you doing on a Fire Nation ship?"

"I had a friend from the fire natation, and his father was a helmsman. We got in and out of so much trouble together. He fell overboard once." Aang smiled brightly. "His name was Kuzon."

"That's a fire nation name I haven't heard in a while." Iroh said proudly, he had been waiting inside. "It's a very old name… when I was a general, there was a helmsman by that name that retired after we retreated from Ba-Sing-Se, he told me, his friend would have been disappointed with what he was doing and didn't want to ruin his memory by causing fear and destruction."

Aang frowned, "Kuzon never wanted to be in the military...he wanted to be an explorer…" Even though every twelve year old boy dreamed of exploring, it was all he could remember his friend ever talking about in terms of their futures.

"During Sozin's reign, he required thirteen year old boys to start training for the military. If their family had ties to any type of our navy or army, they followed their family." Zuko said. "If Kuzon's father was a helmsman then it's very likely he became one to...even if he was unwilling."

"He was a good man. He had a great family. Always kept his mouth shut when asked about the war...but he could play a mean game of Pia Sho, that's for sure." the general said with a grin. They continued their walk deeper into the ship's hull and started making their way up metal stair cases as the ramp closed them in.

"I could never win...my guardian, Monk Gyatso, was a much better player than me. I think Kuzon almost beat him once…"his voice trailed off as he ran his fingers along the metal work. "It's not always about winning, there is a lot of learning involved that many overlook. Although," Iroh paused, stroking his beard. "Winning is a nice bonus." he smiled.

"Uncle...can we discuss your game later...we have a lot to figure out…"

"Of course Nephew, shall we go to the lounge and discuss your next move?"

Zuko nodded and led everyone up the stairs that was of nicer quality and probably saw more foot traffic by its crew and host. "Sorry it's so dark up here, we ran out of oil for these lamps a few weeks ago, and we don't have enough to restock this area." Zuko said simply, lighting a small fire in his palm.

"Wait a second...I thought you were a prince...wouldn't you have all the oil you could possibly want?" Sokka blurted bluntly, raising an accusatory eyebrow.

"A banished prince." Zuko muttered back darkly.

That shut Sokka up for about a minute.

"You're name's Sokka right?" Zuko asked.

"Yeah…" Sokka answered, still looking like he was ready to jump to accuse Zuko of a wrong doing he hasn't committed yet. That or he was still put out about his watch tower being knocked over twice in one evening.

"Just making sure...maybe I could help train you to fight more...since…" Zuko didn't want to blurt out he was awful, but that was the truth, his uncle had called him wise that afternoon, best not blow it sticking his foot in his mouth "you don't seem to get a lot of practice with half of the 'young men' in your village still in nappies."

"Sure...Okay…" Sokka agreed, his face turning red in the dim light. Zuko dropped the flame and it disappeared into nothing at one of the metal doors. It took both hands to open it.

"Stupid ship is so old, the doors like to stick, especially way out here." he said before he finally got it to open into a nice sitting area with a fire pit in the middle and a window that faced the uninhabited pit of the ice patch they called home. "Uncle...um...want to ask the chef if he would bring more tea for everyone?"

"Of course!" he knew his uncle would be too excited to refuse. He left without another word.

Everyone stood around awkwardly and Zuko just stood scratching the back of his head. His helmet was left abandoned by the entry way of his ship and his phoenix -tail plum felt tighter than usual. "Sit anywhere you like." He hoped he sounded at least a little inviting.

They all sat around the fire and pulled their thick parka off. "It smells so spicy in here…" Katara said, sniffing.

"Is it too much? I can open a window." Zuko said. Even though it would defeat the purpose of keeping the rooms so warm, but if they liked the cold he wouldn't argue…

"No, its fine...I kinda like it."

Aang was staring at the fire pit, deep in thought. "The Fire Nation makes their own seasonings, right? And send them all over the world?" Aang asked. He remembered a girl Kuzon crushed on that worked at a stall with her family that had all kinds of brightly colored peppers hanging from the window.

"Yeah, although, we keep the best ones to ourselves," Zuko admitted with a small shrug, not many of the other nations liked them anyway, "unless the earth kingdom wants to pay double. It's not really fair, I know, we mostly sell them the more common ones that they can grow themselves for certain seasons, but since most of the fire nation is near the hottest part of the world we can grow things almost year-around, plus the soil is rich with volcanic ash." Zuko walked over to a map, "that's the Capitol City; it sits right inside a dormant volcano, and the lower region is in a caldera from where it erupted a long time ago."

"So...that's why you guys are a bunch of hotheads, you literally make a home out of a fire pit." Sokka said reclining against a cushion.

Katara smacked him before she heard Zuko let out a chuckle. "At least it's not like the one Avatar Roku had at Crescent Island, there's a constant magma and lava flow there, whereas _at home_ ," he hesitated briefly "the magma is really deep underground." His finger slid to one of the smaller islands near the very edge of Fire Nation waters, "Roku's volcano was very active ...his family and most of the residents got away, but he and his dragon died. I think Grandfather Azulon said it was the poisonous gasses that made it hard for him to get away and then pyroclastic flow was what killed him."

"How did he know that?" Aang asked.

"Avatar Roku was from the fire nation, and Sozin was Fire Lord at the time, and Sozin was Grandfather Azulon's father... so probably heard the story from him and told my sister and me when we were little. There was an earthquake that day, and he wanted to scare us into thinking the palace was going to fall in a giant pit of lava. It worked on my sister for about a minute...then she tried to keep scaring me."

"Sounds like a great guy." Sokka commented sarcastically. "Was he into tormenting little animals as well?"

"He wanted me killed as a child." Zuko answered dryly. They hoped he was joking. All was quiet when Iroh entered the room.

"I wasn't sure what flavor everyone wanted so I brought five trays." he said brightly, half of the kitchen staff was trailing behind him.

Zuko sighed and rested his face in his palm. "Thank you Uncle." he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose for a moment before sitting back down with the group.

After everyone had a cup of their preferred cup of tea, Katara was the one who spoke first. "I think our first trip should be to the North Pole, It will take us a while, but since you will have to learn air along the way, you will have some bending basics before we get there, and I can give you a few lessons on what I have learned...although, I don't know much."

"That would be fine." Zuko nodded, swirling his tea cup around more than drinking it.

"That sounds good...Aang, how long can...your…" Sokka waved his hand to prompt the boy on the name of fluffy snot monster.

"Sky Bison"

"How long can he fly?"

"I haven't tried a really long flight before...the storm caught us about an hour or two into our flight. I have known other bison's to fly all day, but then sleep all day the next day."

Zuko nodded. "We will need a lot of supplies." Zuko stood and walked to the cupboard and pulled out a roll of parchment and charcoal stick. "Uncle, how much food can we take without taking too much from the other crew members?"

"As much as you need Prince Zuko. We will have plenty; we will stop and port at Captain Zhao's ship yard. It's half a day's journey if we push full speed." Sokka looked a bit alarmed that a fire nation base was so close to home.

"I think three weeks is plenty...we can use some of the money I have left to buy what we need after it runs out...and we'll need more water skins." he started making a small list of calculations.

"Don't forget, you will need other necessities Prince Zuko, not only will you need food, you will need shelter as well. There are a few tents in the store room."

Zuko nodded and added it to the list.

"Prince Zuko, a quick word alone?" His uncle asked standing.

Zuko nodded and followed his uncle out the door. They closed the door behind them, leaving it slightly ajar.

"You have not been acting like yourself my Nephew. I know finding out you were the avatar was a big surprise, but you can't let it change who you are."

"I know Uncle." Zuko said softly, his voice devoid of his usual hot temper. "I think the search my father sent me on, was clouding who I was, more so than me realizing I'm the Avatar ever could. I need to discover everything for myself, even if I have to take the throne back myself...I will do it right." Zuko was a bit surprised and startled when his uncle quickly embraced him in a tight hug.

"Best of luck my Nephew." Iroh whispered.

"Thank you Uncle." Zuko hugged him back. He remembered how during all the years at sea how he always brushed off such affection and how cruel he had been...his uncle was nothing but kind the whole time.

"Go, make the travel preparations with your new friends. You all found each other for a reason. Your destinies are all intertwined together."

"Thank you." Zuko whispered again, his uncle simply smiled.

"I'm going to go see the fluffy beast on the deck. I heard it's pretty friendly. I'll see you all off when you are ready." His uncle turned and walked away, before he left, he turned once more, "Think things through Prince Zuko, make this trip as problem free as you can."

Zuko nodded his head with a slight smile and turned back toward the door, it required a fairly hard push just for leaving it cracked. He almost lost his balance as he spilled back into the room. He righted himself and cleared his throat. His face burned a little as all the previous whispering stopped.

"After you all finish your tea, want to start at the kitchens to gather our food rations?"

"Okay." Katara smiled, finished the last sip of her tea and stood. "Thank you so much for the tea."

"Thank my uncle; he's crazy about the stuff." Zuko blushed slightly at her smile.

"We can add what food we get to the bit we have; all we have is seal jerky."

They all filed out of the room, and down the hall. They stopped at door. "I need to step in here really fast and grab a few things." He stepped in and shut the door behind him.

"This is still really weird Katara…" Sokka said looking around the fire nation vessel. "What would dad say if he saw us in here?"

"He would be happy we are helping the Avatar." Katara answered simply. "And besides...he's not here." She muttered the last bit bitterly.

Aang stood there quietly twirling his staff between his hands, trying to ignore the sibling's quiet squabbling.

When Zuko came out, they were all sitting against the wall. "I didn't take that long...did I?" he asked. He had changed out of his light amour, now he was sporting a thick tunic with tight material underneath that ended tightly at his wrist. His pants were made of the same thick material as his tunic, his boots still had the distinct Fire Nation style but winterized for the elements. His bag was bulky with what they guessed was all his clothes and a blanket was rolled tightly and tied to the top, another bag was held at his side. "Aang, these are for you, they no longer fit me, and they might fit you, if you need to hide any. Being the last air bender will be very noticeable, people will assume you are the avatar, and try to hunt you down." He held the bag up for the young monk.

Thinking of Zuko as a child like Aang was difficult for Katara. Thinking of him small, maybe smiling, and without the scar seemed impossible.

Aang just grinned and gave a respectful bow. "Thank you." He accepted the bag and slung it ever his shoulder.

Zuko gave a small smile in return. "So...to the kitchen's?" He asked, slinging the bag over his shoulder. The water tribe siblings nodded mutely and gestured for him to lead the way. He couldn't remember the last time he smiled so much. His face was starting to hurt. He didn't think the effort to be less biter would actually make his face sore.

The siblings were hanging back just slightly, whispering again, so Aang took a few longer strides so he was side by side with the banished prince

The kid cleared his throat. "I'm sorry about knocking you over with the seal penguin." he apologized.

"It's fine; really, you were just protecting your friends. I understand. I must have looked really mean…" He said, looking anywhere but at the boy beside him, or the water tribe kids falling closer in step with them.

"Yeah, you were kind of a jerk." said Sokka with a dry tone.

"I said I was sorry okay!" he snapped. At their shocked expressions his jaw clicked shut and he grit his teeth. He had done well keeping his temper in check so far...he didn't want to ruin it now. "Sorry." he said again, much quieter. He quickened his pace lighting up the hall way again. He took a sharp left turn. "Kitchen is this way." He said quietly trying to walk ahead. Zuko could still feel their uncertain stares behind his back.

He did turn around however when the entered because it sounded like Sokka was trying to inhale all the air in the room with one large gasp.

"Katara…" he whispered loudly. "Look at all the meat!"

Aang looked a bit unconformable at the racks of animal hanging up by hooks around the place, and the distinct smell of something smoking over a low fire in the corner.

Remembering his lessons of the other nations as a child, Zuko knowingly gave an apologetic smile to the boy and tossed him a few burlap sacks. "Why don't you fill those up with some of the nuts in those barrels, and whatever fruit or vegetable you prefer?" The cook who was in the corner bowed at Zuko and respectfully took his leave.

Aang nodded and turned away from the meat on the spikes and began filling one of the bags with small handfuls of each kind of nut. His eyes lingered a bit longer on the large barrel of leechy nuts.

"Those are for everyone, Aang.." he said quietly. "You can get more than that, plus, not many of us on board care for leechy nuts very often." He tossed another small sack. "You can fill this one up all the way with them if you want."

Aang smiled brightly. "Thank you so much, I haven't had leechy nuts in forever!"

"One Hundred years." Sokka fake coughed into his hand.

"Yeah...that long…" Aang said sheepishly, and then started to fill the bag with more excitement. Then once it was packed as full as it would go with leechy nuts, Aang started to fill the others with more variety and then moved to the fruits and vegetables.

Zuko was busy filling small glass vials with cooking oils, spices, and herbs.

"Will we really need all of those?" Katara asked, watching him pack them neatly with bits of old cloths in a wooden box making sure none of them moved.

"If we don't eat them, we can sell them later. " Zuko answered. Then started on a second box. "And besides, it would be nice to have some good food while on the road...about done with picking out the meat Sokka?"

There wasn't an answer they could translate from his 'island of awe' as Katara called it. "Once he's there, it's like talking to a snow drift." She muttered. "If he's half coherent I mean."

Once their bags were full they each put a sack or two over their shoulders. One man walked by the kitchen. "Lieutenant Jee," Zuko called.

The man stopped, he didn't look like a very happy man. "Yes, Prince Zuko?" he asked.

"Are you heading up to the main deck?"

"I am…" he affirmed stiffly.

"Can you bring these up and ask my uncle have these to be put in the Bison's saddle? Its fragile, and we have more supplies to gather."

He took the boxes. "Of course Prince Zuko…" the man hesitated. "Shall I take the bags too?"

Zuko walked over to where Sokka had one bag stuffed full of all the types of jerky. "I think that's enough by the way Sokka…"Zuko interrupted before he could start filling a third bag. "Just these two please." he said handing them over to the man.

He gave a surprised looked then nodded. "Anything else sir?"

"No...uh...dismissed...my uncle might want a word though...I'm making some different traveling arrangements."

"Yes sir." The man walked away with their spices and two bags of meat.

"Alright, our store room has the tents and whatever weapons and tools we might need." Zuko said. "This way." he lit the small fire in his palm once more and continued down the narrow corridor.

Once they were inside he looked at the small pile in the first corner. "How many tents do we need?"

"Sokka and I packed one…" Katara said, "So maybe just two, one for you, and one for Aang."

"I won't need one," Aang said, "I'll just sleep on Appa."

"But you'll get wet if it rains…" Zuko said.

"I'll live; a little water never hurt anyone…" Aang said with a goofy grin.

"Says the man under the sea…" Zuko said, using one of his uncle's old random sayings he was always mumbling.

"Okay...I guess I'll take one then…" Aang said unsure. Zuko handed one off to the kid, and after some thought, handed the second one over as well, the kid already looked loaded down with all the bags of nuts, berries and vegetables.

"I'm guessing you don't really want any weapons...hu?"

"Nope." The kid smiled.

"Wanna go check on your pet? We'll be up there soon."

"Yeah. I'll just go and double check and make sure he's ready for the journey." Aang adjusted a few of the bags, and took his and Zuko's tents with him.

After he left Zuko turned to the two siblings. "Please tell me the fluff monster up there can really fly?"

"We haven't seen it for ourselves yet so…" Sokka trailed off.

Zuko sighed and steam started to rise off his other palm. "Guess we'll have to go out on a limb." He stepped forward and it looked like he almost picked the first weapon he saw, a fancy set of Dual Dao Swords in a shiny black sheath.

Katara stood gently fingering a set of small daggers with little bits of leather to strap on her wrist. They were small and thin enough to tuck under a sleeve. "Those could come on handy. If you aren't near water to bend, they might help…" Zuko said softly. "I would also pack these," he handed her small throwing arrows, and sharp shiny metal spirals, "They are normally used together...One of my friends back home...was a nonbender, and these were her favorite weapons to learn how to use." A small smile tugged at his lips. "One day after our lessons let out, we were playing in the garden, and I said boys were better at combat and sword fighting than girls…" At Katara's glare he continued, thinking she might like the ending. "I didn't know she still had her throwing arrows on her and she pinned me to a tree by my robes."

Both siblings chuckled.

Zuko let himself smile again, only slightly, and slipped all the small weapons into the glove like sheaths and handed them over. "We probably won't really need them for a while, but take them anyway." He stuck a few extra bundles of the arrows that were rolled up in cloth and bound with leather straps, and more of the shiny, sharp spirals, also packed with care.

"Thank you." Katara said, carefully slipping them on and pulling a thermal layer of sleeve over them. They looked a little bulky but they still looked well hidden.

"Sokka, would you like a sword or anything?" the young water tribe boy was staring at a wall of all the swords, each varying in length and garnish. He was too busy staring at the wall with a pensive expression and stroking his face to answer.

"He could stand there all day if you would let him." Katara mumbled. "If we want to leave before night fall, we should probably gather everything else we need and let him look..."

"Good idea."

After they had a large basket full of pots, tin bowls and extra water and wine skins they wrapped up a tarp or two and were ready to lug all their things up to the main deck. "Do you think all of this will fit on Appa?" Katara asked, "This will take up at least half the saddle."

Zuko stared at it a moment. "Maybe we can tie it behind the saddle. Or put some of the other things in here to make more space." Zuko put a few long bits of rope over his shoulder, wrapped up in neat rings bound together with small twine strings.

"I guess that will work." Katara mumbled. "Sokka, hurry up and pick a weapon. Come on, Zuko and I are ready to leave."

Sokka quickly picked a modest sword of medium length and tied the strings to his belt. "Coming." He ran to help carry all supplies.

"When we get up to the main deck, I'll come back down to get your parkas, you left them in the lounge room…" Zuko noted.

The siblings glanced down, as if they had forgotten. "Oh." they mumbled.

It took almost an hour to arrange all their goods on the saddle.

With everyone wrapped up in parkas, and furs they were ready to start their journey. Everything that day had snowballed for the two water tribe siblings. They found the last air bender, found the new Avatar who was the fire nation's banished prince, and now they found themselves on a ship, ready to disembark on a creature thought to be extinct for a century all the way across the world. Everything looked so much bigger to all the kids sitting in the bison's saddle.

Zuko slid off the side to grab the last bag to tie it to the side, and say a quick goodbye to his uncle.

"Be safe my Nephew." Iroh said giving a warm hug.

Zuko gave a small hug in return. "I will Uncle."

"Zuko, it is very important that you try to keep your identify as secret as you can." At Zuko's annoyed expression, he mended his statement. "Only your friends, this crew and the southern water tribe know you are the avatar. Try to keep it that way as long as you can. It will be inevitable that others will find out, but avoid telling other civilizations as long as you can. Understand?" Iroh asked, squeezing Zuko's shoulder in a tight grip.

"I understand Uncle." Zuko nodded. He gave a respectful bow and then started to climb up on the saddle. The air bender was seated on the bison's head with the reigns in hand.

"Alright Fly-boy, let's see the bison fly now." Sokka said dryly, huddling deeper into the furs next to his sister.

"Appa, Yip-yip!" Aang called. Appa gave a great moan and started to shuffle his feet a little until he was standing at his full height on all six of his massive paws. He flapped his tail into the air once and brought it down onto the deck with a mighty clang, it moaned once more before it lifted its tail again, his front two paws lifted into the air, and a few moments later, they were airborne.

"He's flying! He's flying!" Sokka yelled excitedly, leaning over the saddle, staring at the ocean below. He turned to face the unamused or less excited faces of the other riders. His smile fell "I mean, big deal, he's flying." His smile quickly returned as he turned back to see the open water and let the wind whip in his face.

Zuko was watching the ship, and the people still standing on deck fading away.

"So...you're the Avatar now. Isn't that great?" Katara asked.

"I'm still not sure if I want to be…" he admitted.

"But the world needs you…According to legend; you'll need to master air, water, than earth right? You have fire down mostly already." Katara noted.

"I'll still need to find a master to teach me more fire bending...My uncle taught me for a long time, but I'm still behind."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll catch up." Aang said, turning around and resting his chin on the saddle.

"yeah…"

"I'll be able to teach you the beginnings of air bending." Aang said with a large smile. "It's a long way to the North Pole, you'll love it!" An excited expression crossed Aang's face. "Maybe I can make you a glider and you can learn to fly!"

At Zuko's skeptical expression she continued on a calmer tone. "And on the way I can still teach you some water bending moves I know, it's not much but it will be a start!" Katara said smiling.

Zuko nodded. "Thanks."

"Then we are all in this together." Katara said with a warm smile.

"Great!" Aang said cheerfully. He reached inside his cape and pulled out a map. "Before we get to the North Pole," with a slight grin he added "and in-between lessons, we have some serious business to attend to. Here, here, and here,"

"What's there?" Katara asked pointing to a point on the map.

"Here, we'll ride the hopping lamas, then way over here we'll surf on the backs of giant koi fish." Aang said tracing an invisible trail on the map with his finger. The route made no sense at all to Zuko. "Then back over here we'll ride the hog monkeys. They don't like people ridding them, but that's what makes it fun!" Aang said excitedly giving a giant childish grin.

Zuko watched the kid talk excitedly as he pointed to all the places he had been before and where they will need to go. He turned to look back where the Fire Nation ship used to float on the sunset orange ocean, but it was gone, and clouds obscured his view. The sunset dimmed to a dull purple twilight and everyone quieted as they watched the stars twinkle at them, and wondered about the new paths of fate were stretching before them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors Note: (6/20/16) all current Q &A can be found on my profile page. It is under the spoiler warning line. **

**_"It's time for you to look inward_**

 ** _and begin asking yourself the big questions._**

 ** _'Who are you?' and 'What do you want?'_**

 ** _-Iroh~ Lake Laogai_**

Water

Earth

Fire

Air

 _Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony, then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, the master of all four elements could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. One hundred years past and my brother and I discovered the last air bender of the Air Nomads. Not even he, knows where the Avatar is. A few strange occurrences later, and we found him. He has great skill and courage, but we know he has a lot to learn before he is ready to save anyone. But I believe, Zuko can save the world._

Book 1: Water

The Southern Air Temple

Dusk was just peeking over the hills. They had covered a lot of ground the previous night and were now only hours away from the Southern Air Temple. Their camp fire was now just rising from where the flames died down to embers the night before and now was completely smothered by a bit of water from the stream nearby. They didn't unpack any food rations last night to give them easy clean up and get an easy start the next morning- that was, if everyone could manage to wake up. Katara and Zuko were both up rolling their sleeping bags and tying them to the bison's saddle, while Aang busied himself with making sure the reigns on Appa's horns were extra secure. Sokka was still in his sleeping bag snoring away; the other three chose to ignore him and let him sleep for a bit longer.

"Wait till you see it Katara. The air temple is one of the most beautiful places in the world!" Aang had been chatting excitedly nonstop since he woke up, but the fire bender that was up at the sun's first ray was staying very quiet.

Katara could see the uncomfortable frown on his face, "Aang, I know you're excited, but it's been a hundred years since you've been home." Katara said gently.

Aang turned around and grinned at them. "That's why I'm so excited!"

Katara accepted Zuko's hand as he helped her over the side of the saddle where she had finished securing the bags, she gave him a pleading look to help her. "It's just that…" she hesitated, "A lot can change in that time."

"I know." Aang answered a slightest bit of annoyance coloring his cheerful tone, but not for long. "But I need to see it for myself." He leapt off the sky bison's head and floated down on a light gust, his feet brushing the earth more than landing. "Wake up Sokka! Air Temple here we come!" Aang pumped both fists in the air.

Sokka gave a groan and blearily opened his eyes. "Sleep now, temple later." he was interrupted by his own snoring.

"You're going to have to warn him, he'll believe you…" Katara whispered to Zuko. If Aang heard her, he didn't let on.

"I'll try...but...he'll find out regardless today...maybe seeing it will be what it takes."

They jumped when Aang's startled voice shouted, "Sokka wake up, there's a Prickle-Snake in your sleeping bag!" Katara was about to help her hopeless, luckless brother, when Zuko stopped her, and she saw the conniving grin spread across Aang's face and a stick now held behind his back out of Sokka's view. Sokka's terrified screams came next.

"Aghhh! Get it off! Get it off!" he stood in his sleeping bag and hopped about three paces before he fell flat on his face, now aware enough to realize there was infact, no Prickle-Sake was in his sleeping bag at all.

Aang smiled innocently and tossed the stick harmlessly back to the camp fire. "Great, you're awake!" Aang said, "Let's go!"

Katara giggled at her brother's grumpy look and misfortune. Zuko was glad he didn't need such a wakeup call, but it didn't keep him from fighting off a grin as the disgruntled, sleepiest addition finally made it on the saddle with his half rolled up sleeping bag sloppily secured to the saddle.

Aang, still ever so cheerful turned to his friends "Everyone ready?" Sokka was already snoring. Aang rolled his eyes, "Appa- Yip-yip!" The bison groaned and then they were air born flying higher and higher in elevation. The clouds and early morning mist clung to their clothes. Aang reclined on Appa's head, not really needing to steer. He turned and stared at Katara, who was laying on her stomach watching the clouds roll by underneath them. Her braid was untucked from her furs and was whipping gently in the breeze.

"What are you staring at?" Zuko suddenly asked, startling Aang out of his trance.

"Oh...I was staring...sorry…" he turned back around to hide his blush as Katara turned to acknowledge the boys talking.

"So...Aang, how long will it take till we get to the temple?" Katara asked, moving to the edge of the saddle so she was peering over his shoulder.

"We should get there by noon. It's really high up, and it's at the opposite end of this island."

"Oh…" Katara sat back, dread was quickly building in her stomach, but nothing compared to Zuko. He sat in his own little corner of the saddle, more away from anyone else, and was staring off into space.

She managed to gain his eye contact. "Everything okay?"

"Fine...for now…" his jaw was clenched as he stared past Katara and a pitying look filled his eyes when he stared at the only air nomad alive. And knowing your great grandfather was responsible only made it worse.

After about an hour or so of flying everyone was starting to grow restless. Even Sokka was scrambling around for his bag of seal jerky. Zuko watched Sokka eat with a slightly appalled look. Sokka had a large chunk of meat in his mouth and was making no attempt at eating quietly, and he only half chewed before he gulped down a mouthful.

After some mental debate, Sokka offered the bag for Zuko to take his fill, which he politely declined. "I think I'll wait till we settle down for lunch at the air temple." Zuko said quietly, if he could stomach anything at all after what they were sure to see.

Zuko did eventually eat a small breakfast with his new...travel companions? Surly if they are going to be traveling the world together they could at least call each other friends? They all sat on the saddle together with handfuls of nuts and berries. Aang eventfully left to sit back on Appa's head to make sure he was still heading the right direction. "It's almost noon…" Zuko muttered low enough for only Katara to hear.

"I know." she sighed. She looked at the boy siting on the bison's head all alone. "Hey Aang, could I set up there with you? The saddle is getting a little crowded." Not that it wouldn't be just as crowded huddled together on the beast's head. The monk looked way to eager.

"Sure!" he said; he stood up and offered out a hand to help her down. Zuko stood on shaky legs to help her across as well. How could anyone stand while the bison was in the air? He thought any moment he would go flying off. Once Katara was safely seated, he sat back down too and held on to the front of the saddle.

Aang unknowingly gave them the que for the unpleasant conversation they had been planning all morning. "Look! The taller mountain range, we're almost there!" Aang pointed to a set of over lapping, seep mountains that disappeared into layers of cloud.

Katara looked over at Aang's hopeful, eager face, knowing she was going to take away from it some made her feel horrible. "Aang, before we get there, I want to talk to you about the air benders…"

"What about them? Aang asked; he hadn't taken his eyes off those distant taller mountain range since he laid eyes on them.

"I just want you to be prepared for what you might see." Katara warned. She was dancing around the subject, and she, Sokka and Zuko all knew it.

"The Fire Nation was...is ruthless" Zuko stated. "Aang...they captured, tormented and killed a lot of people over the past one hundred years."

"They killed my mother." Katara mention in a timid whisper, missing Zuko's shocked expression. "They _could_ have done the same to your people."

Zuko frowned. The kid needed the facts, not a slow sugar-spice coating. "They did."

Aang was adamant though. "Just because no one has seen an air bender, doesn't mean the fire nation killed them all." his goofy grin was back. Zuko was wondering if there was more to it than what met the eye. "They probably escaped."

Zuko's tone was very quiet and very serious, ""Aang, back then, the war got really bad, my nation did horrible things to everyone. The only place they haven't really touched yet was The Northern Water Tribe. My Uncle broke into the outer wall of Ba-Sing-Se. He was so close to winning. He only stopped because he lost his son, he abandoned the siege and came home. He's had a different perspective since, all he sees now are sons and daughters being lost right and left, but no one stopped the invasion at the air temples until they thought the last air bender was...dead."

No one spoke for a moment, perhaps they were getting through to him. Katara put a hand on his shoulder, "I know it's hard to accept-"

Aang quickly interrupted "You don't understand Katara… Zuko, the only way to any of the air bending temples is on a flying bison, and I doubt the fire nation has any flying bison, right Appa?" He stroked Appa's thick white fur and the beast growled almost as if he agreed with his companion. "Yip Yip!" Aang said, almost forgetting to warn everyone to hold on tightly as they started a steep climb to the top, almost steeper than it had to be; he had to prove a silent point somehow. "There it is everyone: The Southern Air Temple." He smiled, and pet his sky bison some more. "We're home Buddy...we're home…"

Everyone looked at the temple in awe; even lifeless with dead vegetation littering the rocks it still held its own beauty.

"Aang, it's amazing!" Katara said, awestruck by the beautiful temple.

It was nearing sunset in the fire nation run harbor. Everything was tinted red in the dying sun. The flags hung at every post with their proud insignia fluttered in the breeze. Iroh confronted the crew once more about the lie he fabricated on Zuko's identity and his possible whereabouts before leaving the ship to gather supplies.

Captain Zhao stood not far away at attention and once Iroh made it to the end of the ramp, he walked foreword his position relaxed.

"Captain Zhao." Iroh greeted with a respectful nod.

"It's Commander, now." he informed him. "How are you General?"

"'Retired, general'," Iroh corrected him with a smile, "and doing well, I just saw your harbor nearby. We are in need of some supplies."

"Oh…well, the fire lord's brother is always welcome." Zhao said, then paused, "Join me for tea while your supplies is gathered? I assume you have a list ready?" Iroh wordlessly handed over a thin roll of parchment. "Always prepared hmm?"

Iroh just smiled. "I would love to join you for tea...have any ginseng? It's my favorite." he said as he followed the newly appointed commander.

They didn't say a word as they headed to one of the nicer tents set up for war meetings. "I'll give your list to one of the soldiers and you should be ready to go in two hours."

"Thank you." Iroh nodded again and looked at all the decorative weapons lining the wall; he winced when, after touching one, particular fascinating- looking weapon, the whole display slid down to the floor with a large clatter. Zhao entered with the tea, a scowl of disapproval on his face. "Sorry…" Iroh apologized, "My fault, entirely." he quickly sat down to have his tea.

Iroh knew they were not going to be having just polite small talk when Zhao braved his first question. "So...you're nephew doesn't respect his crew enough to get his own supplies? Or shall I have an extra cup ready for when he decides to join us?"

Iroh chose to chuckle at Zhao's words. "Prince Zuko is not terribly fond of tea. He will drink it every now and then, but…" Iroh paused and smiled, "he normally has to be in a good mood."

"I'm guessing that is a rarity?" Zhao asked, raising the cup to his lips to drink.

"Normally," Iroh confirmed with a tight smile.

"Will he join us anyway to see what is taking so long? Last I heard he was an inpatient sort."

"My nephew is, yes, but he is not on the ship. I'm not completely aware of his location at this exact moment. He is still hunting the avatar and wanted to travel lighter for this one expedition."

"Has he found a lead?" there was a glint in Zhao's eyes that Iroh didn't like at all.

Iroh hung his head with a frown, and shook his head. "I told him what he found was just shadows of what was whispered over a hundred years ago."

"I see..." Zhao said, lifting his chin in suspicion. "Have you followed him at all to make sure he is keeping out of trouble?"

"I don't need to." Iroh smiled, "I trust him to make his own decisions. He is after all, a young man."

Zhao stared at him for a moment. "I see…" he repeated.

"You don't think him capable of traveling alone?" Iroh asked softly, but a warning was layered underneath.

Zhao wisely kept his opinion to himself. "But wouldn't it be nice to know where he is; that way if he did catch the avatar by some miracle, wouldn't he need to have a means of holding the avatar prisoner or want you there to help him?"

"I see your point, but I am letting him figure things out for himself. He is still learning the lesson of thinking things through." Iroh new that was mostly the truth, his nephew was rash at the best of times; he hoped his new knowledge of being the avatar would change that.

Thee odd glint in Zhao's eyes grew brighter, and looked slightly crazed. He stood and gave a smile that was supposed to look kind. "Well...I'm sure you'll want to be on your way as soon as possible...I'm going to check and see if they have almost finished gathering your supplies. I'll have someone come by and bring you more tea in my absence."

"That would be much appreciated." Iroh nodded, raising his tea cup to Zhao with a warm grin.

Once Zhao was out of the tent, the smile fell and Iroh rested his chin in his hand, his fingers rubbing the hairs there as he sat deep in thought. At this moment, he didn't trust Zhao as far as he could throw him.

Aang ran from one stone over look to the other, taking in every inch of his old home. Even though the place was dark and cold, Aang's mood seemed bright as he smiled and pointed at significant, nostalgic locations.

Sokka walked sour faced and pouty next to his sister. "When do we stop for lunch?" he asked.

Katara was not impressed. "You're lucky enough to be one of the first outsiders to ever _visit_ an air temple," she said stressing the right word, "and all you can think about is food?"

"I'm just a simple guy with simple needs," Sokka said with a shrug.

"There are plenty of lychee nut bushes and moon peaches here; I found them last winter… I'll find us some later." Zuko muttered sliding past them to follow the air nomad further into an outdoor room lined with stone and over hangs with low banisters for the balconies that hung off the cliff side.

Aang excitedly pointed to the stone stables, "That's where the bison used to sleep!" He pointed to a little forest edge just to the left, "That's where my friends and I would go to meditate in the mornings." He pointed to a stone court yard not too far off. "That's where we would practice our forms and have lessons." He then ran across the little area they were in now, and pointed to the south wall, a beautiful carved round arch that formed a staircase bridge was still intact- cracked, and full of moss, but still standing. "That's where my friends and I would play all our games…" he said in a small voice, then brightened back up and then pointed to a big field with wooden posts stuck in the ground with a goal post on opposing sides. "That's where we would play air ball!" Aang stared at the field and gave a small sigh and frowned, his mood plummeting.

"What's wrong?" Katara asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"This place used to be full of monks and lemurs and bison…" He lifted his face a little so he could see more of his old home. "Now there's just a bunch of weeds. I can't believe how much things have changed."

"So…"Zuko asked, stepping forward, Sokka and Katara following suit. "This air ball game...How do you play? It can be lesson number one for my air bending." Zuko let a small smile tug at his lips and Aang's smile returned with a sneaky glint that looked every bit the mischievous twelve year old he was...give or take the hundred years.

It took a while for Zuko to scramble up onto the post and find his balance. Once he was up, he saw just how old this air ball court really was. The old wood was cracked, rotted and wobbly. Zuko's legs trembled as he tried to center his core so he wouldn't fall. "Um….I'm not sure this is a good idea any more…" Zuko said timidly.

"Nonsense! You'll do great!" Aang said, oblivious, or uncaring to the fire bender's struggle to stand straight up on the post as Aang stood lightly on his toes. He found a ball that was buried in the snow. It was hollow with wavy bits missing from all sides. They guessed it was so they could bend the air inside. Aang hopped onto his spot and smiled. He bent the air so the ball spun over his shoulder and juggled it back and forth for a bit and spun it over his hand before tossing it in the air. He stood calmly as gravity started to pull it back down. Zuko wasn't looking forward to that moment. Once it was low enough, Aang gave it a kick with an added burst of air and it spun wildly toward Zuko. It bounced between the taller polls and hurtled nearer. He barely had enough time to hop to the second post out of the way.

Aang laughed in victory. "Aang-seven, Zuko- zero!" he cheered.

"Let me try again!" Zuko said, standing back on the post wobbling a bit at first, then gaining his balance. Sokka tossed the ball back up to Aang.

"Whatever you say!" Aang said with his large grin. Zuko wondered how the kid could smile so much. It seemed constant. He juggled the ball again and kicked it at Zuko in the same manner as before-only this time Zuko was ready for it. He leapt forward and grabbed the ball- it made a sharp slap when it collided with his hand instead of the tall post- he threw it as hard as he could at the monk, since it didn't hit any of the post there was nothing to slow it down and Aang, even with his bending couldn't stop it from flying through the goal.

Aang looked suspired, then delighted. "Not bad Zuko! Although, it _is_ against the rules to touch the ball after it's in the air, but since you can't air bend yet, I'll let it slide...for now- once you learn air bending, we can call a fair rematch."

"Whatever you say Kid." Zuko agreed, jumping back to his starting position.

"Want one more go, Teenager?" Aang smirked.

Zuko rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Sure." His legs and core had never had such a work out, balancing so long, it was getting a little tiring and the muscles were already starting to quiver in protest.

"Want to have a turn after Zuko, Sokka?" Aang called, spinning the ball over his palm.

"Sure. If Angry Jerk- no offense- can do it, I don't see why I can't." Sokka said puffing his chest out slightly.

Zuko raised his eye brow questioningly, "none taken...I think…" he muttered, then focused on Aang serving the ball. He cursed when he had to duck as came at him too fast like before.

"Ha! Fourteen to seven is not too bad." Aang smiled broadly. "Okay Sokka your turn."

Zuko leapt down to the ground and eyed Sokka questioning. "What are you doing?" he whispered, he knew there was no way Sokka could play this game at all; even though Zuko didn't use his bending, the water tribe warrior was nowhere near as agile as the banished prince now avatar was.

"Stalling." Sokka whispered, it sounded more of a question than an answer to one. He took a breath before starting his clumsy climb to the top post in front of the goal.

Zuko walked over to join Katara by the end of Sokka's goal post. "Not bad," She smiled at him. "Even though you technically broke the rules," She smirked.

"How do you think I got banished? Playing fair?" he said, trying to make a slight joke but it still tasted a bit bitter, even to him. Some rules didn't matter much to him anymore anyways.

They stood silently as they watched Aang serve the ball and it bounce across the court and finally collide with Sokka's stomach. He yelled in surprise and in slight fear as the force of it pushed him back off the post and through the goal post. Sokka landed in a heap not too far from them on fallen branches and snow.

He groaned as he sat up, rubbing his head. "Making him feel better is putting me in a world of hurt." he gasped slightly. Aang was still celebrating his victory as he went to retrieve the ball. "Guys…"Sokka gasped, he crawled closer to an ancient fire bender's helmet, "look at this."

"Fire Nation…" Zuko growled. "Sozin's third fleet, he split all his fleets off into four groups…to get all of the temples at once." he mumbled.

"We should show Aang." Sokka said, taking Zuko's offered hand to pull him off the ground. Sokka was on the air-ball court half the time Zuko was and seemed to be struggling even more to get his land legs back.

"Good idea…" Katara whispered. "Hey Aang!"

"Coming!" Was his cheerful reply as he ran towards them, swirling the air ball around him in large loops.

Katara eyed the helmet then to Aang's approaching figure. She bit her lip then quickly, with a sweep of her arm, made the snow on the ledge above them fall, covering the helmet completely, and effectively knocking her brother back to the ground, covering him in a deep layer of snow as well. Only his limbs were free.

"What did you want to show me?" he asked.

"Just a new water bending move I learned." She lied quickly.

"Nice one." Aang approved, ignorant of his friend's deceit. "But enough practicing, we have a whole temple to see!" He tossed the ball over his shoulder and let it roll to the foot of thee air- court where he found it. He jumped up to a stone ledge- Zuko guessed it used to be a flight of stairs that was either blown to bits or was wood that had rot away a long time ago. Sokka stood and pointed where Aang disappeared.

"I'm gonna go keep an eye on him." Sokka said, hoisting himself up onto the ledge It took a lot of flailing, wiggling and pulling of old roots to hoist himself over the edge but he eventfully scrambled after the air bender yelling for him to wait up.

Zuko stared at Katara disapprovingly. "You can't protect him forever." Katara started to walk off without comment but Zuko stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "The fire nation was here. You can't keep pretending they weren't." His tone was slightly harsh, but his eyes were still soft.

"I can for Aang's sake," her eyes pleaded with him. "Once he truly realizes the fire nation invaded his home, he'll be devastated." Katara looked into Zuko's eyes. "I know we can't protect him forever, but I will as long as I can."

Zuko sighed and looked at the sights of the abandoned temple. "Okay." he relented. "For now…" He turned to where Aang and Sokka disappeared. "We should probably go and make sure they aren't getting into any trouble." Zuko turned to the stone ledge and lifted himself up almost effortlessly, taking a fraction of the time Sokka had. He quickly turned and crouched down, offering his hand to Katara to lift her up next. Once she was standing next to him they were called over to another pavilion area.

"Hey guys! I want you to meet someone!" Aang called. The three shared confused looks before going around a small fountain to come face to face with a statue of an old man.

"Who's that?" Sokka asked.

Aang turned back to the statue. "Monk Gyatso. The greatest air bender in the world. He taught me everything I know." Aang gave the statue a respectful bow, lowering his head slightly. Zuko could almost picture the old man giving the kid a pat on the head.

A very sad looking boy sat on a wall overlooking most of the air temple. A friend sat next to him with a drawn expression as well, only he looked lost, he could tell he was hurting but had no idea what to do in terms of comfort. Both of the young boys looked almost identical, from the arrows on their head to the shoes on their feet.

"Come on Tenzin, I'm sure it's not that bad." Aang said quietly.

"You weren't there Aang...literally...the entire fate world is in my hands now...And I have no idea what to do." He turned and watched the other kids playing the game Aang came up with on his air scooter.

"I'm sure things will work out." Aang said brightly. "You'll always have me, could I come with you while you learn the other elements? You and Bumi could learn earth bending together, and I'm sure Kuzon's master would teach you fire bending in a heartbeat! We can fly to the South Pole and find you a teacher there too. It will be so much fun!"

"What about me?" a voice said from behind the young boys.

"Gyatso." they both greeted.

"I thought I heard you two up here. I heard what happened in the court yard." He said with a knowing smile. "You know how I like to fix a bad day?" he asked his charges. They shook their heads and Gyatso only grinned wider. "I think a few gooey-cakes are in order." was all he said with a wink and walked away. Both boys smiled and ran after their guardian.

Both boys were still looking like they had storm clouds over their shoulders as they watched their mentor bake, and use his air bending to make the fruit topping whip up an hold its shape. An array of colorful cakes lined the wall each holding a different flavor. Aang stuck his finger in the raspberry lemon cake to steal a taste.

"I saw that." Gyatso sing-songed, his back still turned.

Aang just smiled, but Tenzin's frown deepened His back was too the kids playing below, he kept giving sad sighs.

"My ancient cake baking technique isn't the only thing on your mind, is it Tenzin?

"Maybe the monks made a mistake...maybe Aang's the avatar...he could be, I mean, he mastered all the air forms a year before me."

"Minus one." Aang supplied.

"You invented something though, it still counts." Tenzin argued, Aang held up his hands in surrender.

Gyatso turned to them with a kind face, "The only mistake they made was telling you before you turned sixteen, but we cannot concern ourselves with what _was_ , we must act on what _is._ " Gyatso said, sweeping an arm out to gesture to all the activity in the afternoon sun. All of the sky bison were lounging in the tree tops, lemurs were sleeping onto walls; and people were out doing chores, forms, mediating, or simply enjoying the day.

Tenzin still didn't look too sure. "But how do I know if I'm ready?" He asked, turning around.

"All of your questions will be answered when you're old enough to enter the air temple sanctuary. Inside you will meet someone who will guide you on your journey." Gyatso said simply.

Tenzin finally showed interest. "Really?" he stood up, "Who is it?"

"When you are ready, he will reveal himself to you." was the mysterious answer.

"Well monkey feathers." Aang grumbled while Tenzin groaned in frustration.

Gyatso only turned to face his boys with a larger smile, his hands resting on his hips. "Now…" he said, "are you two going to help me with these cakes, or not?"

Tenzin and Aang looked to each other and shrugged, the storm clouds from their bad mood had vanished for the moment. "Alright" they agreed.

"I think it's safe to say Tenzin gets two…" Gyatso winked while the boys laughed. "Okay," Gyatso said, taking his stance a few feet from the wall, the two boys did the same. "One." they all took a step back from their stance, moving in sync, starting to form their balls of air. "Two," the balls were spinning in their hands, and on "three" they used the air to fling the cakes off the balcony. They soared to the forest edge before they made a messy SPLAT-SPLAT-SPLAT-SPLAT on each of the four elder monks' heads. They were promptly attacked by lemurs who wanted to be first to eat the snack that had fallen before them.

Guardian and charges all laughed at their misfortune, knowing well that they would all pay them back later in more or less the same fashion. "Your aims have improved greatly, my young pupils." Gyatso patted their heads in turn.

Aang lifted his head and stared at the statue for a moment longer, still savoring the sweet memory of a fall-sunlit afternoon.

Katara came up and put a hand on his shoulder. "You must miss him." she whispered.

"Yeah…" Aang sighed, and started to make his way up the stairs that lead directly into the temple, "Zuko, I think there's someone you need to meet...Zuko?"

The young prince was still staring at the statue of the old monk, oddly unblinking.

"Hey," Katara placed a hand on his shoulder too and he jumped, startled. "You okay?"

"Yeah...I'm fine…" He said quietly, like he wasn't sure. "This might sound odd, but he seems familiar to me...maybe it's just he reminds me of my uncle…"

"We can always go and visit him." Katara supplied. "Aang, what were you wanting to show him?"

"This way." Aang said, leading them further into the temple. It was dark, inside and extremely cold. Zuko lit a small fire in his palm to give them all more light. Aang stopped outside a very large door with latches and what appeared to be big shells keeping the door sealed shut.

"Aang...no one could have survived in there for a hundred years."

"It's not impossible." Aang shrugged. "Appa and I survived in the iceberg that long."

Katara nodded in agreement. "Good point."

Aang turned to Zuko, "Whoever is in here might be able to help you with all this new avatar stuff."

Zuko still looked skeptical.

"-and whoever's in there might have lunch ready!" Sokka eagerly ran and started to try and push the door open to no avail. They watched him try for a few minutes before his shoes slipped on the floor and he slid down landing on his back side. He looked up at Aang, "I don't suppose you have a key…?" He asked.

Aang just smiled, "The key, Sokka, is air bending." Sokka cleared the way so Aang could do whatever form of bending that was needed, considering his previous luck whenever someone bended around him, Zuko wouldn't have been surprised if the door fell on Sokka once the door was unlocked. Bending a blast of air from each side of him, Aang made a gust that went into the horn openings. It reminded Zuko of an instrument. The bits of what they thought was shell was just swirled clay that swirled the air until it pushed down the latch on each side until finally the middle latch slid over and up, leaving the door to creek open.

"Hello!" Aang called into the darkness. "Any one in there!?" he started walking into the room. Passing the threshold made his cape flutter from the air vents in the floor, making a low hum. It made for a good alarm system...Zuko thought.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Zuko muttered, following after Aang first, followed by the two water tribe siblings, they all shivered as they walked over the vents as well, the hum echoed in the silent halls.

"Everyone stay close." Zuko muttered, making the flame in his hand brighter.

It wasn't long until they came to a room dimly lit from the hall light; the celling looked like it went up forever in a never ending swirl. As their eyes adjusted slightly to the new room they quickly saw its occupants, over a hundred statues stood tall and cold.

They started to walk through the rows, all trying to look around them at once.

"Statues...that's it?" Sokka asked, sounding disappointed.

"Who are all these people?" Katara asked herself out loud.

"I feel like I know them somehow." Zuko muttered, walking to stand in front of a man with a wolf on his head. "This one is water tribe," he pointed to the man. "Water, Earth, Fire, Air." he stopped for a moment in front of Avatar Roku before his eyes slid to a statue that looked remarkably like Aang. "Avatar Tenzin…your friend." Zuko whispered.

His eyes locked with the statue again and he couldn't look away from the youth locked inside the stone. A laugh, his laugh, over a hundred years ago rang in his ears.

 _"Come on slow poke! Hahaha! We gotta get to the early air currents or they'll be slower than you!"_

"Zuko, snap out of it!" he was jolted back into himself when Katara shook his shoulder.

"How do you know his name? I never told you guys…" Aang said quietly.

"And there's no writing." Katara pointed out.

"I just...know it somehow…" Zuko whispered.

Sokka made a small sound of disgust with an aggravated growl. "You keep getting weirder and weirder."

Zuko ignored him and instead walked on to the next one, but instead of a statue, it was a simple looking tomb with the water insignia on it. "That's strange…Avatar Korra died when she was five...guess they couldn't get a statue of her...but I'm wondering...if they only way in here was air bending...how did they get the tomb in?"

"The next avatar?" Aang asked, standing in front of a statue of an earth kingdom man with a round top not and a round face to match, with a small diamond of hair just on his chin.

"Avatar Tayo…from a small earth kingdom town near Omashu."

"Wow." Katara said sadly, looking at his youthful face, they all died do young….Tayo can't be over 40...and poor Korra…." she rested her hand on the simple tomb stone for the girl who probably didn't get the chance to bend her first native element. "What happened to them all?" she asked Zuko.

He shook his head. "I don't know…"

"Oh but you know all of their names?" Sokka asked.

"That's about it...I have a feeling whatever it was...it wasn't good…" there was a hum as someone crossed over the threshold. Startled, they all scrambled to hide behind one of the statues. Aang, the smallest, ended up being crouched down behind Korra's tomb stone, while Katara and Sokka ended up behind an avatar in front of Roku's statue. Zuko was standing behind another. Everyone was stating the think the same thing, that perhaps they weren't as alone as they thought.

The looming shadow looked suspiciously a lot like the rims of a fire nation bender's helmet. "Fire bender...nobody make a sound." Sokka hissed rather loudly.

"You're making a sound." Zuko snapped indignantly the same time as Katara.

"Shhhhh!" Sokka and Aang both hushed them as the shadow spread along the floor getting closer, they hardly dared to breathe. Sokka pulled out his club and Zuko readied his dual swords.

"That fire bender won't know what hit him." Sokka whispered, he and Zuko leapt out from behind the statues at the same time.

"hu?" they muttered.

At their hesitation, Aang and Katara peeked out from their hiding place.

"Lemur!" Aang shouted in delight.

Sokka was too busy drooling. "Dinner."

"Don't listen to him, you're gonna be my new pet!" Aang said joyfully.

"Not if I get him first!" Sokka said running towards the furry animal the same time as Aang.

The little creature let out a terrified screech as it arched his back, hissed and turned to run away.

"Wait! Come back!" Aang shouted.

"I want to eat you!" Sokka shouted, not far behind.

Sokka shouted, not far behind. The two disappeared down the hall way, Aang leaving a small dust trail as he used his air bending to give him a boost.

Zuko watched them go, an uneasy feeling settling in his gut. "Maybe you should wait here, I'm gonna go find them before they get into trouble, wouldn't want any suspicious flares going off."

Katara nodded blushing slightly and Zuko took off at a sprint.

Sokka and Aang were both scrambling over each other and over the uneven terrain of the rocky mountain side of the temple, it was possibly ruins Aang was to buys to notice in his chase. Aang finally got further ahead of Sokka and reached the lemur's hide out first, Aang recognized it as the monk's meeting area and where his friend found out he was the avatar, and where he was tested before receiving his arrows. He pushed a curtain aside, "Come on out little lemur, that hungry guy won't bother you anymore." He cooed, stepping towards another set of curtains, and pushing them aside. Instead of finding the lemur, he saw the gruesome scene of long dead fire benders. Old bones, and hallow pieces of armor that used to hold living men were in haphazard heaps. Aang gasped, "f-fire benders...they _were_ here? Katara and Zuko where right..." he mumbled, still trying to find a hole in the truth that lay out before him. He raised his eyes to see a man crumbled on the ground, only his skeleton and bits of his clothes remained, even faded, Aang noticed the yellow and orange of the air nomad's clothes, then his eyes finally flickered to the wooden pendant and beads around the man's neck. "Gyatso…" Aang whimpered, dropping to his knees. His chest clinched as sobs built in his throat and cried into his hands. He didn't even hear Sokka enter.

"Aang, did you find my dinner yet?" he questioned, then stopped when he saw the boy crying. Feeling guilty for upsetting him, he smiled so Aang could hear his apologetic tone. "Aang," he started lightly, "I wasn't really gonna eat the lemur okay?" Aang just continued to cry and just shook his head.

Then Sokka seemed to absorb his surroundings. He glanced up and his smile fell from his face, and saw the skeleton of the man Aang had showed them in the court yard. "Oh man…" he looked around also noticing the fire bender's bodies. "Come on Aang." Sokka put his hand on his shoulder, "Everything will be alright, let's get out of here." Aang just shrugged Sokka's hand away and continued to cry.

"Hello? Sokka? Aang? Are you guys in here?" Zuko asked, stepping into the room, he paused when a loud crack was heard. Zuko's face lost whatever color he had as he glanced down at what made the noise, a large bone, the arm-Zuko could see where the hand was a few inches away- was underfoot, now broken in half. His pale face started to turn a little green. "Oh…" He looked up. "We should get out of here…" his eyes locked on the skeleton across the room. Of all the bodies Aang had to find, it had to have been Gyatso. Zuko cringed as Aang's sobs grew a little louder and the wind started to pick up, swirling around them, faster and faster like a tornado.

The only emotion Sokka registered at the moment was hatred for the teen before him, and pity for the kid sobbing at his feet. Sokka had to squint as the dust was carried through the air. "Your people killed Gyatso! All your nation does is kill! So many men, woman and children, and whatever you can't kill you burn or destroy! Your stupid family is the reason we're all in this mess! You are all alike!" Sokka shouted and picked up a rock and tossed it at Zuko's blank face that was staring at the body. It hit him on the side of the head. Zuko didn't flinch. "Are you even listening?!"

Zuko's hands started to tremble slightly and his gold iris's disappeared, leaving an unearthly blue-white glow. Rocks started to shake and smoke was rising from Zuko's palms. The earthquake was steadily growing more violent.

Sokka muttered a curse worthy of getting his mouth washed out if is Gran heard him- Spirits- if _Katara_ heard it. He had enough time to grab Aang by the color of his cape and drag the confused distraught kid to safety, they stood in the doorway. The protective older sibling in Sokka ducked over Aang's head.

"It's his avatar spirit!" Aang said, his voice hoarse and his eyes red rimmed.

Katara joined not long after, watching Zuko's violent, blind display of power over the first few layers of earth that made it shake and tremble so.

"What happened?" Katara asked, Sokka put an arm around her and tucked her into his chest along with Aang.

"He saw all the bodies...and Gyatso…" Aang supplied. "and-"

"And he just lost it-!" Sokka said before Aang could inform his sister he might be the sole reason the ground might open up and swallow them.

"I'm gonna go try and calm him down!" Katara said bravely, stepping away from her brother's protective hold.

"Katara…." Sokka said, grabbing her wrist for a second. "I yelled at him." Everything was silent, yet deafening at the same time. Sokka took a breath before finishing his confession, "I blamed him and his people for what happened here, and threw a rock at him…" Katara was too angry to even scold him. "Now please, calm him down before he tears this mountain to pieces, he'll listen to you." He let go of her sleeve.

She nodded and slowly slid her feet across the shaking earth to the boy in obvious grief and pain. "Zuko!" she shouted. "It's not your fault! None of it is! Not even your past selves couldn't have helped! The war was awful, yes, but it won't last be much longer, you being the avatar will help fix things! It's your job...we trust you! I trust you! Zuko, you don't know it yet, but you give people hope! I've had hope in the avatar since I was a little child! It's still there Zuko! Come back to us!"

He stood there for a second like Katara's speech had no effect, but slowly, and surly, his palms stopped steaming and the earth slowed to a low rumble, then stilled entirely. Everyone had to catch tier balance from the new lack of motion. Only Zuko seemed to stand stiff and ridged- unaffected. His eyes were still glowing. Katara mustered up more of her courage and took the last few steps to his side. She took his hand, squeezing it gently.

"We're your family now, Aang, Sokka and I...we're not giving up on you." His hand was still warm where he held the beginnings of fire in his palms.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you, I was wrong, but we all have to look out for one another. I'll do a better job from now on." Sokka smiled.

Zuko's hand responded before the rest of him as his gripped tightened around Katara's hand and his eyes lost their glow, returning to their soft gold. Katara's eyes widened in shock as he almost half crumpled to the ground and Katara fell with him a little to slow down his fall.

"I'm sorry." He muttered, sounding very weak, his head falling back a bit into Katara's shoulder.

"It's not your fault." Katara said, not letting go of his hand.

Aang crouched by them too, his eyes were red and his face looked chapped. "Are you going to be okay?" Aang asked.

Zuko nodded, "are you?"

Aang paused, and let his eyes wonder back to Gyatso. The body was still in its same spot, it hadn't moved at all during the quake. "If fire benders found this temple they probably found the others too...didn't they?" Zuko nodded. And Aang's lip trembled a little as the weight of that realization came crashing down. "So...I really am the last air bender…"

Zuko nodded, and sat up. Katara pulled Aang into a quick hug.

Sokka stayed quiet a moment as his sister held the young monk and Zuko sat there, rubbing the side of his head.

"Did a rock hit me or something?" he asked, pulling his hand away to test if there was blood, but his fingers came back clean, but there was a pretty nasty forming bump though.

"Sorry…" Sokka said, grimacing in embarrassment. "I kinda threw it at you…"

"Oh…"

The fire nation prince and the young monk both shuddered as a cold gust of wind blew in, bringing a few flurries with it. "I think it's time we make lunch now." Katara said, pulling Aang and Zuko to their feet in turn. Both of them have had a bad day. "Aang and I can get the food together. Sokka, would you gather some wood so Zuko can start us a fire?"

Everyone nodded in agreement. The mood was still pretty heavy and depressing. Sokka wasn't even attempting to make a joke, and wasn't showing any enthusiasm as he normally did around meal times.

Sokka walked ahead of everyone to start his mission on finding enough firewood. He was anticipating spending the night, or at least helping them stock up on dry kindling to keep with them. Katara was a few paces behind, a sisterly arm around Aang's hunched shoulders, and her hand still gripping Zuko's. The older brother wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that at the moment. He stopped when the lemur hopped to his feat bravely and dropped an arm full of moon peaches purposely before scampering over to Aang and climbing up him, using his clothes and leverage to hoist him up on his shoulder. He giggled. "Hi little guy." Aang greeted and reached an arm up to scratch him behind the ear.

Sokka's enthusiasm for food returned as he scooped up all the peaches and began to eat them with gusto.

Katara laughed. "It looks like you made a new friend Sokka." she said, scratching the little furry animal behind his large ears. "What are you going to call him Aang?" That moment, the lemur took flight, grabbed the peach Sokka was getting ready to take a second bite from, and landed back on Aang's shoulder already munching and stuffing the fruit in his mouth swishing his tail happily. Everyone laughed at Sokka whose hand was still gripped around the air where the fruit had been moments before, his mouth agape. "Momo." Aang said with certainty. Everyone laughed some more, even Zuko.

They were sitting around the camp fire roasting peppers and salt cured meats from their food rations, while Zuko made the rice for everyone. Aang was eating a peach he had roasted over the fire as well, staring off into space. The fire was comfortable in the slowly decreasing temperatures as the sun left its peak in the sky and started to dip back down.

Once the food was ready Zuko asked the question that had been nagging him since he caused the earth quake "Um...Aang?"

The boy looked up, his eyes still very sad, and face chapped from the cold winds blowing on his damp face earlier. "Yeah?"

"What did the air nomads do when someone….passed?"

There was stunned silence for a moment before Aang answered. "We have a small meditation time, were we think about the person, and let go, knowing their spirit is free, they shouldn't be trapped in our minds full of grief, then the body is cremated, and like their spirt, lets the wind blow the ashes where ever it blows. They might join a river that empties into an ocean, or become part of a tree that spreads its seed across a nation. It shows us how things truly never disappear. Just change form...why do you ask?"

"I was thinking it might make all of us feel better if Monk Gyatso got the ceremony he deserved. And I think you need it too."

Everyone nodded in understanding. "What does the fire nation do? The soldiers were people too. Even though they killed my people, they lost their lives as well." Aang asked.

Zuko wasn't expecting that question. "Everyone that knew the person gathers around and someone speaks, for royalty its normally one of the fire sages, they mention all their accomplishments to honor them, and mention all the family members left behind and all of those already deceased, and the ceremony ends when they set the casket on fire. When I was eleven, my grandfather Azulon passed away in the night, and after the ceremony his ashes were put in a marble urn with gold trim and the royal family...and me...walked down this hall way of all our ancestors' urns that had all passed, the oldest one was more than a thousand years old." He paused to think. "Every summer solstice we had to visit that hallway, and attend the festival in the capital city...or sit and watch more like while the guards surrounded us. It's a big party that lasted all night, and kids wear masks to scar off evil spirits, and oils are burned to appease all the ones that actually like us…" remembering the original question, Zuko quickly explained what he thought how people not of royal decent held their ceremonies for the deceased. "Families on a smaller scale, and ones who…well is not the royal family puts the ashes in a simpler urn and keeps a small shrine somewhere in their home."

"Don't you think it's kinda weird you have people's ashes just...in our house just sitting there?" Sokka asked.

"It's supposed to be an honor to have your urn in the family's hall, every year our father would tell us of the ones who's urns were left in other places to be forgotten…"

"That's...that's awful…" Katara whispered.

"In the water tribe," Sokka began, tossing his roasting stick in the fire, he didn't think Katara would exactly be up for telling this story. He wasn't sure if she even remembered all the details. Katara didn't remember their grandfather at all, just stories of his wacky hair and eccentric tendencies. But he still wasn't sure she remembered everything after the fire nation took their mother from them. That week was still a blur to Sokka. He was normally good at blocking painful memories away, but held on just enough. He took a breath and continued his story, "we wrap the body in cloth, someone prepares it a special way so…" he gulped a little, uneasy about his explanation, he was regretting that second chunk of moo-sow, "Its prepared in a special way so it sinks to the bottom of the ocean."

Zuko watched as Katara's face paled in the moon light, tears rolling down her cheeks as she held her necklace in her fingers. "Are you okay?" he asked- accidently interrupting Sokka starting again. He threw him an apologetic glance before looking to Katara.

"I'm fine." Her voice shook. "Go ahead and finish Sokka."

He hesitated, but complied. "We get in a very large boat, or raft and paddle out to a deep part of the ocean, and the ceremony is supposed to represent becoming part of the ocean."

"Who did you lose?" Zuko asked.

It was Katara who answered. "My mother."

Zuko sat silently, remembering their conversation from earlier that morning. "I'm sorry." Was all he could think to say.

They all watched the fire crackle and spit sparks as the wood sifted and collapsed as it burned away. It was Aang who finally spoke. "Let's set up camp and make the preparations. I don't mind staying the night here if you guys don't."

Zuko helped gather more wood from fallen trees and even climbed a few trees to find some twigs, he even managed to stop Sokka from falling a tree with a sparrowkeet's nest inside. Once they had enough wood for two pries Zuko lit them for everyone. They all moved away to their camp fire and watched the two larger fires burn not far away.

Zuko had some water by his side and was pouring parts into the mud, it looked like he was making a mud pie.

"Um...Zuko? What are you doing?" Sokka asked.

"Making a small pot to put the ashes in for the fire nation soldiers. There's a fallen tree that's hallow not too far away to keep it in."

All was quiet while he worked and the fires burned away.

It was dark by the time the fires died down to red hot embers. They were all in their sleeping bags around the camp fire, staring up at the sky. "The stars seem so close here." Katara whispered.

"We're up really high." Aang said. "It always felt like we were in the sky."

Zuko turned over onto his stomach to look at his friends, or the ones who were awake, Sokka had fallen asleep almost instantly. There was something still bothering him, and he had to know the answer. "Aang, you said you thought someone was in the statue room...who did you think it was?"

Aang rolled over too. "Gyatso told Tenzin that someone would help teach him to be the avatar, and I thought; maybe they would wait for the next one, and still be there."

"Who's going to teach me now?" Zuko asked. "There's not much a bunch of statues can do...I recognized them...but that's all…"

"I'm sure we'll find a way." Katara whispered.

Aang nodded and snuggled further into his sleeping back, Momo, was curled up around his shoulders.

"I'm going to get more firewood and build up the fire a bit before we sleep. It will probably get colder." Zuko climbed out of his bag and shivered. "Yeah, it's definitely colder."

By morning, a layer of frost and a dusting of snow covered almost everything. Zuko had stayed awake most of the night making sure the fire stayed nice a hot, he even set up a few of the tarps around his sleeping friends to keep them dry while he watched the snow falling at it's heaviest. The crude clay pots he made for the ashes had hardened well by the fires over the night and would work well enough. He had made a second one for Aang, to carry them to which ever spot he chose. By the time Katara, Sokka and Aang were awake; he already had the ashes in their respective urns and had melted some snow in a pot for some cleaning water to save their dwindling drinking water supply they gathered the day before.

Katara sat next to Aang with an arm around his shoulders. All morning he just stared at his small pile of fruit and nuts in his palm. He was really quiet and his face was drawn. "I think I'll save these for later." Aang said simply, dumping his share back in the sack. No one argued.

Once they were done with their morning meal, they all stood and followed Aang to the location he chose. He smiled when the place he found was perfectly intact. "Gyatso, Tenzin and I would throw cakes at the monks from up here. That's the oven he would use…" Aang sighed. Then he gave the tiniest hint of a smile, "he always said the secret to his pies was in the gooey center."

"But it's not a secret any more you just told-" Katara elbowed Sokka before he could finish.

Aang walked to the small wall where the pies would rest and set the urn down. . Then Aang smiled as he got an idea. He took off the ill-fitting lid and took a few paces back. "One." he counted, forming the air ball between his hands, "two" he reared back like he was about to roll a real ball, "three" his vice was a little choked this time as he let the air ball roll forward and slam into the urn. It went flying high over the trees in a high arc, past even the monks' favorite meditation spot. The ashes spilled out and a strong gust picked them up carrying them on. Aang didn't even hear the clay urn smashing into the ground. The winds picked up even more dramatically, blowing the leaves that remained on the ash- trees, crusty and brown to join the gray specks soaring on the wind. It was strangely harmonic.

Aang sniffed, rubbing his nose and his face with his sleeve. "Let's go back down to the fire. It's cold." he said, starting to walk away. Katara walked instep next to Aang, Sokka was quick to follow. Zuko stood there a moment, the ashes were nearly gone, the winds had taken its burden with ease. He wished his mind could be that easy.

"Zuko?" Katara asked, stopping before descending the stairs. Aang had taken the air bender way down and floated to the ground to land on an air scooter to buzz around the court yard. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah." he said, he cleared his throat when his voice cracked a little, "I'm coming."

They all met back by the fire, Aang was quiet and not fidgeting, but at least he was eating. He knew his new friends worried when he refused to eat that morning.

"Zuko? What will you do with the other urn again?" Sokka asked, he was busy poking life back into the shrinking fire. He had half a piece of jerky in his mouth.

"I'll take it into the woods at sunset." Zuko said simply. He was drawing in the dirt with a stick, not looking at any one. It was the fire nation insignia over and over; he would swipe over it when it was sloppy and then draw it again. Finally she scowled and scribbled over them. "I'm trying to think what else I'm going to do…since they didn't get the honor of their ceremony back home."

"What do you mean?" Katara asked softly.

Zuko looked confused. "I don't know…I can't just leave it there…and do nothing."

"Why not?" Sokka asked, his mouth full again, this time with fire flakes.

"Those are hot Sokka." Zuko muttered off handedly.

Sokka yelled as the heat took affect and Sokka scrambled to get the extremely spicy snack out of his mouth.

"Anyway," Zuko continued, "I can't just leave it there," he repeated. "I have to do something."

Sokka's goofy demeanor dropped. "You're kidding right?"

That angered Zuko, the fire flared on its own as he jumped to his feet.

"Whoa! Hot cinders!" Katara warned, moving away from the fire a little as sparks flew around wildly.

The fire calmed slightly, but Zuko grew angrier. "The real question is 'are _you_ kidding'?!" Zuko stalked a few feet away, "Families in the fire nation grieved when those soldiers didn't come home. You guys have no idea what the fire nation was-is still like." Zuko said his voice now low and dangerous. "If an able bodied young man, especially a trained bender, did not participate in the army in some way, they dishonored their family forever. Patriotism was highly prized and a part people readily took part in. Even if they grew up being fed lies, they felt like it was something they _had_ to take part in. Not all of them were blood thirsty killers." Zuko explained. "You have no idea what some of those soldiers went through." Zuko's hands clenched into fists as they shook slightly. "Lets drop it. I'm sorry I snapped, and I'm sorry about the fire getting out of control...I'm sorry I'm always angry….I'm sorry-"

"Zuko, it's okay, really it is." Katara assured him. "Now that you're the avatar, you can fix everything. You just have to give it time."

Aang had watched the arguing play out with a pensive expression. "Maybe we could all use some quiet time…" He suggested.

"What? Like a toddler?" Sokka asked, he didn't seem too thrilled on the little insight he had into the lives of Fire nation soldiers.

"Not exactly." Aang said, resting his staff in his lap. "Just...sometimes thinking about why things are the way they are, and knowing there's nothing we can do at this moment, might help a little….just accept things." Aang said grimacing some. "It's harder than it sounds." he admitted.

Sokka rolled his eyes, and in a drawn out huff and muttered, "You want us to meditate? Wonderful." Sarcasm dripped from his tone.

Katara gave Zuko and Aang and apologetic smile, "Just ignore him," She glared at Sokka, "I do." Katara agreed on everyone's behalf to try Aang's idea.

The rest of the day was a quiet affair. Aang left to go see what his old room looked like. They were surprised he left alone, and refused to let anyone go with him. Momo was perched on his shoulder, the fury creature had his tail wrapped around his bald head and seemed content to stay a while. Sokka left to find more peaches. This left Zuko at Katara alone by the fire to sit and have their quiet time in each other's company.

After a long time, Zuko broke the silence with a small whisper. "My uncle told me once that a moment of quiet was good for mental well-being…"

"You're uncle is a smart man."

"Too bad I was an idiot for not listing half the time."

They lapsed back into silence. Then Katara started again. "I'm sorry about Sokka, he can be a bit bitter and sarcastic at times, and a flat out moron, but he means well, and this war affected us too, he was older than I was when the fire nation attacked our village, he remembers more than I do. I only remember one part…" She trailed off. "He tries to be brave, and he uses the bitterness, and the cockiness to cover everything. Once we get closer to fixing things, I don't think it will be so bad any more. We are all just as Aang implied." she said smiling. "We are all just kids that need times were we need to calm down and just think about our words before we say them."

Zuko let his lips tug into a smile. He nodded and faced the fire. He even chuckled. "What would my uncle do right now…" he jokingly mused. "Oh, that's right…" he stood and retrieved the tea pot. "Make some tea. Time flies when there's nothing but your thoughts for company…" he paused when he realized he and Katara had more than just their thoughts. For something to do he glanced at the sky that was quickly approaching sunset. The clouds were merging together, and piling on top of one another, promising snow later on. He spotted a cloud formation his uncle pointed out to him in previous years. "My uncle called that a snow bank." he pointed, Katara turned to see it. "We better pitch the tents tonight."

"How about you go find Aang, and I'll have Sokka help when he gets back. I'll start on the tea." She took the pot and cups from Zuko and opened the pouch of tea leaves.

Zuko nodded and went to find the kid that had managed to disappear for hours.

When they all returned to the fire, the tea was almost done, and everyone was much calmer. Zuko stared to eye the urn that sat at the forest's border. "It's almost sunset…" he noted. Setting his tea cup aside he got to his feet. "I shouldn't be too long." without another word Zuko picked up the urn and walked into the woods. He finally came to a stop and the hallow tree he mentioned. He set the urn inside, and knelt like he was taught to during a funeral. "The war you fought was pointless you know. I'm sorry." he mumbled. After a moment, he stood and took out his dagger, careful not to damage it, he started to carve a few characters into the tree. He brushed away some of the bark that was still left in the groves and stood back to see; nodding in approval he ran a finger along the lines and curves of the characters.

 _To those who fell without reason._

The letters slowly turned black as he charred them into the wood. He brushed away the soot and turned to walk away. He still had his dagger in hand. Hesitating a moment, he sat back down by the tree to just think. That wooden tree, will be as close to their family's hall as he would get most likely at this point. Dark thoughts of him dying in the near future and his ashes being left in the woods to be forgotten were terrifying. The title of his honor will never be returned. At least, not the way his father pictured, or how he pictured two years ago. Zuko clutched the dagger tighter as the letters almost glinted playfully in the light.

 _Never give up without a fight._

With a deep breath he held the sharp knife in his hang properly, and reached up to his royal phoenix tail, and with a clean swipe not too close to his scalp, let the knife cut through ribbon and hair in one go. It all ended up in his opposite hand, neat and perfect. A part of him regretted the action, and then let it go just as quickly. It was just hair. It would grow back eventually. Zuko stood again and tossed his hair into the woods. His royal past would stay there, in the past. As much as it scared him, he knew he had to only look at the now, and the beyond. With a determined whisper he headed back to camp. "Time to be the Avatar." He made it back to camp and managed to sit down before Sokka started laughing.

"What?" Zuko asked, raising an eye brow.

"I think you forgot your ponytail in the woods…" he snickered.

Zuko rolled his eyes annoyed. "It wasn't a ponytail; it was a royal phoenix tail."

"I'm sorry." Sokka said in a fake polished voice, "your Royal- Fire-Birdly-ness."

Katara and Aang stared at Zuko's expression for a moment; he looked torn between being angry and something else. They were surprised when he let out a snort, and started to grab another bowl of left over rice and jerky. "And what do you call that thing on your head? Is it an artic-hen tail?"

Sokka flushed and spluttered indignantly, "It's a warrior's wolf tail!"

"Sure, whatever you say Worrier-Ice- Pup." Zuko shrugged and took a bite of his rice fighting back a smile.

Sokka was still red faced while Aang and Katara laughed and their friendly bickering.

True to Zuko's words, it did snow that night, a big, cold, heavy snow that made the winds wrap around all the tents making it impossible to keep warm. They all emerged from their tents in parka's and extra blankets. Zuko had put on an extra hood.

"We should probably get going." Sokka said teeth were chattering. "But let's have breakfast first. Come on Master- Hot-Head...get a fire going."

Zuko rolled his eyes at the comment but did what was asked, everyone was freezing. After a quick breakfast of rice, nuts and fruit they were packed up and ready to go. Zuko extinguished the fire with a small wave of his hand, and a closing of his fist. Zuko eyed the temple for a moment longer. "Aang, do you mind if we go back and look at the statues one more time?" Zuko asked.

Aang nodded quickly, eager to help. "Okay. Sokka? Are you coming?" Katara had already expressed her interest in going one more time that morning.

"I am staying side my sleeping back where it is warm, thank you very much." he quipped.

"Suit yourself. Aang shrugged.

Together, the three of them began the trail back up to the air temple sanctuary. Zuko stopped in front of his most recent past life, and made his way down the line stopping again at Roku. "How are these people supposed to help me be the avatar if I can't talk to them?" Zuko asked no one in particular. His thoughts from a few days ago were nagging him nonstop. "All the other Avatars had some kind of help…I think."

"You'll find a way." Katara said kindly.

Zuko stared at the statues for a moment longer before his shoulders slumped slightly. "Okay...Sokka is probably getting bored, we should get going." Katara and Aang nodded and exited the sanctuary. Zuko was surprised when Aang kept walking. "Aang," Zuko stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, "Don't you think we should seal the doors back?"

Aang nodded, "you're right." he wordlessly handed Zuko his staff and made a small tornado that reached inside the room and pulled, the doors swung forward and latched.

They all climbed onto Appa, even the little lemur was still perched on Aang's shoulder. He started to scratch the lemur behind the ears. "You, me, and Appa, we're all that's left of this place, we have to stick together." The animals chittered and moaned in agreement. They all huddled together on the back of Appa's saddle when Aang called "Yip Yip!" from his seat, they all watched with him quietly as his home disappeared- replaced by a vial of clouds.


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Note: AN's will appear at the end of the story from now on.**

 ** _"It's time for you to look inward_**

 ** _and begin asking yourself the big questions._**

 ** _'Who are you?' and 'What do you want?'_**

 ** _-Iroh~ Lake Laogai_**

Water

Earth

Fire

Air

 _Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony, then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, the master of all four elements could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. One hundred years past and my brother and I discovered the last air bender of the Air Nomads. Not even he knows where the Avatar is. A few strange occurrences later, and we found him. He has great skill and courage, but we know he has a lot to learn before he is ready to save anyone. But I believe, Zuko can save the world._

Book 1: Water

The Warriors of Kyoshi

The warriors on the main deck were lucky not to have a series of burns when their admiral finally finished with his temper. "What do you mean we lost track of him!?" he yelled, spit flying in the young soldier's face.

"Th-they have a large animal they travel by sir…a..um…flying bison- I think, and it's kinda fast."

The admiral growled, and then lifted the boy off his feet, holding on to his tunic's collar, his face was a mere inch from his. "You will not be allowed back on this boat until you have news. Understand?" he said in a dangerous whisper. A stark contrast to the yelling and screaming fit he demonstrated earlier.

"Y-yes sir, Admiral Zhao, sir." The boy stuttered.

With that, he was tossed to the ground and he wisely scrambled to his feet as quick as he was able. He collected the map he dropped with fumbling fingers and ran off the boat to look for people who could possibly know the whereabouts of the Last Airbending avatar.

Zhao, now rubbing his head as a head ache appeared front and center said "I'm going to meditate!" He marched to the door way that lead to the nicer parts of the boat. "No disturbances!" He yelled to his crew, slamming thee steal door behind him.

A few moments later found Zhao in an ornately decorated room, filled to the brim with spicy incense, and various oils burning in their jars. Zhao sat calmly in front of a mosaic of Agni and Kai, saying a quick prayer- he lit his candles and began.

Time lost meaning for Zhao- but his temper lay there buried under a thin layer of calm.

His face twitched when the door creaked open. "Sir?"

"The _only_ reason you should be interrupting me, is _if_ you have news on the Avatar." He said, faking the calm inside, but noticing the candles flickering ominously as his control ebbed.

"Well Sir, there is news." The young solider took a steadying breath as he braved a step forward. "But I'm afraid you won't like it- please sir, I did best I could,"

"I'm sure whatever it is, I can handle it. Stop wasting air and spit it out."

He took a deep breath any way before the words tumbled out quickly. "We have no idea where he is."

"WHAT?!" The flames rose at least a foot, and the temperature in the room escalated, the young solider fanned the heat away from his face, as he handed the approaching admiral the scroll that had the map of the avatar's previous locations.

He wanted to request he opened a window- at least make it so it was easier to breath. "There have been multiple sightings of the Avatar, but he's impossible to track down, he…seems to be a master at evasive maneuvering…" he wheezed, then tried to clear his throat. "How will we find him sir?"

A cruel smirk passed the older man's face. "Oh…I'm sure we'll manage…" as he followed the lines on the map.

It was a clear, beautiful day for flying, even though they had been flying since very early morning, and midday was quickly approaching, they were all still lounging around on the saddle. Zuko was watching the ocean fly by below; Sokka was looking down at a map, while Katara was mending her brother's pants. Sokka looked up from his map and looked at Aang for a moment, they hadn't made a turn in forever, just flying north east after their little detour to see Dolphin piranha's jumping out of the water. Sokka narrowed his eyes at the young boy, sometimes he wondered if the kid forgot their mission was to get to the North Pole, not every blasted landmass they came across. "You have no idea where you are going...do you?" He asked.

Aang just smiled and shrugged. "I know it's near water."

Sokka wanted to smack his forehead at the idiocy of the answer. "Guess we're getting close then." he quipped.

Katara must not have been listing to the exchange, because she didn't even glance up, but Aang couldn't look away from her. Only when he asked his new loyal pet to fetch toy marbles he had stashed in a pocket inside his cape did he break his stare. "Katara, check out this air bending trick." He opened his palms to show three marbles spinning around in-between his hands. Zuko craned his neck to see for a moment, shrugged and went back to staring at the water.

Katara just continued pulling needle and thread through the tattered cloth-not sparing the monk with his goofy grin even a glance. "That's great Aang."

Aang's smile dropped and he let the marbles fall into his palms as he closed them. "But you didn't even look."

Katara finally looked up and repeated, "That's great."

Aang's shoulders slumped, "But I'm not doing it now…"

Katara-too focused on the task- shrugged and continued to pull the needle through.

"Stop bugging her air-head." Sokka said with a wave of his hand. "You need to give girls space when they're doing their sewing."

Katara's focused frown turned into a scowl, "What does me being a girl have to do with sewing?" her tone stated Sokka better answer carefully.

A precaution he took no heed to, "Simple," he stated, reclining back against the rolled up pile of sleeping bags. "Girls are better at fixing pants than guys." he continued, completely ignoring Zuko's 'cut if off' motion made out of Katara's line of site, but Sokka, as clueless as always, plowed on, " and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that." he shrugged nonchalantly. "It's just the natural order of things."

Zuko face-palmed at Sokka's lack of tack. Katara scowled at her brother before in mock-cheerfulness exclaimed, "All done with your pants!" She showed off the half-finished stitches, and the gaping hole that was still present. "And look what a great job I did!" Her scowl returned and she tossed her pants to her brother, with the added wind of their flight, the band that wrapped around his waist, ended up going over his face and the pant legs flapped behind him. Sokka, now very nervous and apologetic, peeled his pants away from his face and more closely examined the hole he didn't even have a prayer of fixing on his own.

"Wait! I was just kidding!" Sokka exclaimed in a panic, his voice cracking, talking faster and faster, he mostly wanted out of his sister's bad side. "I can't wear these- Katara please!" He took a breath like he was about to grovel for his sister's forgiveness that his pants might be repaired soon, Aang played the peace maker once more.

"Relax Sokka, where we're going, you won't need any pants!"

In the midst of their arguing, they didn't see the approaching island, Aang brought Appa a little closer to the water, starting their descent.

"Katara…." Sokka pleaded, and looked at her with great Polar-Puppy eyes, clasping his hands together as he resorted to begging. Wordlessly, she held out her hand to take the pants back, warning him with her glare to keep his mouth shut. He not only handed them back, but wrapped his arms around her in a giant Platypus- bear hug. "Thank you-thank you- thank you-!" he shouted in a rush, he managed to give his sister a peck on the cheek. She scowled pushing him away.

Zuko snorted at the siblings, knowing exactly what would happen if he tried anything like that on his _precious_ little sister- a lightning bolt to his back-side probably. She already did that with a fire blast when they were children...so he guessed she would have to be more creative- she never stuck the same way twice. "You know Sokka," Zuko started, "If you would have kept your mouth shut, and let your sister be, your pants would probably be fixed by now."

Sokka just scowled, he already-somewhat- admitted he was wrong, he didn't need someone rubbing it in. "Oh yeah, just how well can you sew?" Sokka asked.

"Not at all. When I was a kid I had servants for that stuff, and when I was banished, I would just buy new clothes when I wanted or needed…" he shrugged. "My sister doesn't know how to sew; all she knows is how to be a royal-pain- and father's favorite."

Sokka and Katara were about to comment on the level of dislike he was displaying towards his sister, but when they heard she was The Fire Lord's favorite, they shut their mouths. "She sounds...scary." Sokka said for lack of better words.

"Lets hope you never find out just how much…." he muttered- wanting to get away of the topic of Azula, he moved toward the front of the saddle, Aang still looked put out that Katara didn't even see his bending trick, that he was pouting slightly at the water. "Aang." Zuko said, getting his attention, "Show me that bending trick, call it lesson number one, gotta start somewhere, since the air-ball doesn't exactly count."

Aang only looked too pleased to show off as he demonstrated again.

Aang had Appa land on a beach of the island he had been looking for that day. Everyone shrugged and looked around. There were still little bits of snow everywhere, but it was definitely warmer than the South Pole. However- they failed to see how it was warm enough they wouldn't need pants. Katara and Zuko shared a shrug as Aang floated off the saddle.

Sokka voiced the concern that was on everyone's mind. "We just made a pit stop yesterday; shouldn't we get a little more flying done before we camp out?"

Aang didn't appear to be listing; he had his eyes shaded from the sun as he stared out into the water looking for something,

Katara tried to help reason with him too. "He's right, at this rate, we won't get to the North Pole by spring."

Zuko's nerves jumped at the thought of it taking so long, why couldn't they have just taken his ship? It would have been so much faster…

"But Appa's tired already. Aren't you boy?" Aang said as a pitiful excuse. Even the bison didn't seem too thrilled his master was putting words in his mouth. He gave a small grunt of disapproval. Aang wasn't having any of that. He nudged his pet with his elbow. "I said, 'aren't you boy?" To humor the boy the bison yawned, and grumbled some more.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Yeah...that was real convincing." He said dryly. "Still…" he continued, eyeing Appa's massive size "Hard to argue with a ten-ton magical monster." he said, remembering the story of Sokka and Katara's first encounter with the beast.

Suddenly a great big Elephant-Koi fish jumped from the water, followed by a few others. "Look!" Aang shouted. "That's why we're here! Elephant Koi, and I'm gonna ride it, Katara you gotta watch me!" Aang was stripping to his undergarments as he spoke, and ran toward the water. He dove in, only to jump in the air again, "COLD!" he shouted, and then started swimming out into open water.

Sokka swirled his finger around his temple, rolling his eyes, implying something wasn't quite right in the monks head. They didn't notice the Ten-Ton Magical Monster wondering off into the brush.

It wasn't long until Aang was on the fish's back and was holding on to its back fin for dear life. "YEEAAH! HAHAHA~!" He laughed, and turned to wave at them, with the biggest smile they had seen on him yet.

Katara cheered when the fish jumped and made a small dip before coming back up again, almost as if it was being mindful of its rider's need for air. "He looks pretty good out there," Katara smiled. Momo was even cheering- hoping up and down giving joyful chirps.

"Are you kidding?" Sokka asked, "This fish is doing all the work."

They all turned around when they heard something rustle and Appa groaned and they heard him chewing on something. " No Appa!" Katara scolded, "Don't eat that!" She ran toward the bison that was chewing on the thin branches of a Sourwood tree.

"Aww man…" Aang whined.

Sokka and Zuko shrugged and turned back to watch Aang- from far away, they could still tell he was put-out from when Katara ran way to stop Appa.

Zuko saw the shadow figure the same time Sokka gasped. "There's something in the water!" they shouted at once. Momo started to screech, his fur on end.

Katara must have heard their yelling, and Momo's hysterical screeching. "What's wrong!?" She demanded, tripping over the edge of her parka as she came running back to the shore.

"Aang's in trouble!" Sokka said then started to try and wave the kid back to shore- whatever was in the water- it wasn't good. Koi fish were being pulled back under mid-leap and disappearing. "Aang!"

"Get out of there!" Katara shouted, trying to wave him in.

"Come to shore!" Zuko tried to yell louder, the kid obviously couldn't hear them, he just smiled and waved, mistaking their fear, and calling for more cheering. The fish he was riding made to leap out of the water again to take another dive, when suddenly it was yanked back under. Aang yelled as the momentum threw him forward; he belly-flopped painfully in the water after his short flight, and took a few startled breaths, spitting out the salt water in-between.

"What is that thing?!" Zuko shouted as a giant fin rose out of the water. Aang must have seen the shadow it made on the water, because he turned around to see behind him and screamed. He somehow bent himself out of the water and used his air bending to propel himself across the water, his feet acting more like a ships' propeller. Aang didn't stop until he plowed right into Sokka and Zuko, knocking them over. They all came to stop in different ways- Aang landed at the bottom of a bush, Zuko groaned as he rolled off the bush that now sported a -Zuko-shaped chunk- missing from it, while Sokka rubbed his head and eyed the dent he had made in the sand from flying back into the tree.

Katara ran over to where they were all trying to get up.

"What was that thing?!" Katara said, repeating Zuko's question from earlier, maybe Aang knew…

"I don't know." Aang responded, pulling his clothes back on.

Guess that answered that. "Well," Sokka said, brushing the sand out of his gloves, "Let's not stick around and find out, time to hit the road."

About the time he spoke, they saw a blur of green as warriors suddenly pounced on them. Momo was stuffed in a sack, and Katara gave a startled yelp as her sleeves were pulled over her hands and her hood covered her eyes- Aang's cape was pulled over his head as well. Sokka tried to unsheathe his boomerang, but wasn't quick enough and was taken down just as quickly as the others, Zuko tried to see his attackers but they had all stepped to his-bad side and behind him, he only got a good look at a girl's face with heavy make-up in front of him armed with a fan, and shield, before his arms were bound, a blind fold snapped over his eyes, he knew he lost when legs knocked out from under him.

Everyone was tossed to the ground with a grunt of discomfort-if not pain.

Sokka spat the sand from his mouth. "Or...we could stay a while…."

 _Where ever here is…._ Zuko thought…

They were dragged through the forest where they hopped was to the town or village these people came from, and not some pit of vipers or worse. Sokka didn't shut up almost the whole way. He finally stopped talking when Katara kicked him. Or...Zuko first with a quick 'sorry' then managed to kick her brother.

Finally, they found themselves tied to a large post and heard a crowed gathering.

"This isn't good…" Zuko muttered, trying to fight the restraints.

Then all fell silent when they heard footsteps approaching closer than the others that seemed to hold more authority than anyone else. "I am Chief Oyaji, you are trespassing! You four have some explaining to do!"

They stood there quietly, fear starting to take hold- they were in a strange place- blind folded, and restrained.

A feminine voice continued speaking in place of the chief, "And if you don't answer all of our questions, we're throwing you back in the water with the Unagi." She said matter-of fact.

 _Oh so that's what that thing was...finding out the hard way...like always._ Zuko thought bitterly.

Everyone was surprised Sokka wasn't gagged by now, "Show yourselves cowards!" he shouted, one by one their blindfolds disappeared, and they were all looking into the painted faces of six young girls- probably all Katara's age, or at least Sokka's. "Who are you? Where are the men who ambushed us?"

"Sokka- Shut it!" Zuko warned, his eyes flickering to the girl he knew was the one he came face to face with before being blindfolded. She looked a little vicious- even if she wasn't in charge.

The female warrior- the one who looked to be in charge was angered by his comment. "There were no men, we ambushed you! Now tell us, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Sokka- don't you da-" Zuko tried to warn again- Katara was trying to get her elbow into his ribs hard enough to get her brother to shut up.

Zuko didn't get to finish his warning.

"Wait a second, there is no way a bunch of girls took us down." he exchanged an arrogant look with Zuko, hoping he would second his opinion, but Zuko was shaking his head hoping to stop the damage that had already been done.

The female warrior- who was now obviously, without a doubt the leader- grabbed Sokka by the front of his parka and snarled in his face. "A bunch of girls hu? The Unagi is going to eat well tonight…" she said, no bluff present in her threat. Sokka couldn't meet her eyes.

Katara fearing the worst, tried to smooth over his moronic, sexist claim, "No- don't hurt him! He didn't mean it- my brother is just an idiot sometimes." The warrior gave a small nod to his sister and released his parka.

"It's my fault." Aang spoke quietly. "I'm sorry we came here, I wanted to ride the Elephant Koi."

Chief Oyjai spoke up again over the warriors, "How do we know you are not fire nation spies?" he accused. "Kyoshi has stayed out of the war so far, and we intend to keep it that way!" All eyes on Kyoshi island snapped to the only fire bender in their midst.

Zuko was staring wide eyed at the chief after he revealed the name of the little island they found themselves prisoner on. "Wait a second...this island is named for Kyoshi...I know Kyoshi…" Zuko smiled a little.

The chief gave a sarcastic laugh, like he caught Zuko in a terrible lie. "Ha! How could you possibly know her? Avatar Kyoshi was born here 400 years ago." he looked up, as did the rest of the little team, they were tied to a large post that held the old avatar's statue. "She's been dead for centuries!"

Zuko looked at his friends for their nod of approval. "I know her because" his voice wavered- uncertain...I'm the Avatar." it sounded crazy even to him.

While everyone in the village was still recovering from their shock, the leader of the warriors was the first to speak. "That's impossible!" she snapped. "The last avatar was an air bender that disappeared a hundred years ago."

Zuko turned to Aang with a pleading expression, Aang knew what was being asked of him. Especially since their few days at the air temple, Aang tried to avoid the topic of his first avatar friend at all cost, but he figured he'd have to explain more eventually. Just not all. "Actually…" Aang began, "I am an air bender...and I knew the air bender avatar, his name was Tenzin, he died less than a year before Sozin's raid on our temples."

They were all met with disbelieving stairs.

The chief almost looked disgusted. "Throw the imposters to the Unagi!" The warriors all let their fans fall open with a sharp SHINK as they advanced,

Katara spoke in an anxious whisper, "Zuko...ask them to let you show your earth bending…"

"Like that will work!" Zuko snapped.

"Try." she whispered.

Zuko sighed, "Fine.." then called out right before the warrior reached them, "Wait! Let me prove to you I'm the avatar! I can...sort of...bend two elements, my own, and some of earth, I'm not very good but it might be enough to show you, please, I'm new to this!" he said all of this very fast.

The leader of the warriors pursed her lips as she thought before she came to a decision. "Fine…" then her expression tuned deadly again, "but try anything that hurts any one-!" she let the rest of her threat hang in the air.

"I won't- I promise!" Zuko said quickly.

It took Zuko stomping on the ground about ten times before he managed to make a small spike of earth pop out of the ground.

"Alright _'Mr. Avatar'_ ," the warrior taunted, "show us element number two."

Zuko's shoulders slumped a little, "you're not going to like my native element...I sort of need my hands for it." He was untied after much debate, and his friends restrained again once he was free. "I...I promise not to hurt anyone...please...believe me." He warned before he let a small flame puff up in his hand.

Everyone gasped, and jumped back at his small display of fire bending and he snuffed it out immediately. He wasn't sure what to feel as a burning blush made his cheeks and neck burn at the fear some of them showed at his small-nonthreatening display. He wasn't like this a week ago. He didn't care then. Much.

"You are the avatar…" the chief said in awe, snapping Zuko out of his thoughts.

Zuko just gave a firm nod. He heard the ropes being cut as his friends were released.

They all stood a bit awkwardly for a moment when the lead warrior said in a softer voice, "Are you really an air bender?" she asked Aang.

"Sure am!" Aang chirped, he pulled the marbles out of his cape pocket again, "Check this out!" he spun the marbles in his palm once again, the crowed of little girls cheered at the little trick, one guy showed such enthusiasm he started to foam at the mouth until he passed out cold.

"Umm..is he okay?" Zuko asked, pointing to the guy in a heap in the dirt.

"He's always been like that." one other warrior said with a wave of her hand. "He'll be fine in a few minutes."

Everyone stepped over him as they left the square.

The head warrior gave a respectful bow in front of Zuko "I'm sorry about the misunderstanding…my name's Suki if you need anything, let us know." she smiled and walked away with the rest of the warriors.

Zuko was still a bit confused… _did things actually work out that quickly?_

The chief extended an arm toward the large house at the end of the village. "Come, you must be hungry," he said with a large welcoming smile.

A little girl ran excitedly around the port telling everyone who would listen, from the main village- to the other smaller villages scattered throughout the small island, all the way to the port. "Did you hear the news, the avatar is on Kyoshi!" she told a fisherman who almost dropped his parcel in shock. Once she blurted the news she ran off to the next person.

The fisherman was still a little surprised by the news, as he gave his fish to his normal customers- he told the merchant, "As I was leaving Kyoshi island...a little girl told me the avatar was there...can you believe it?"

Further along in the day, a fire nation man came up to the merchant's stall, an old general stood nearby admiring the flower stand.

"One pink-salt water trout please." he said, "be sure it's your best one, it's for Commander Zhao of the fire nation."

The earth kingdom man shrugged, it didn't mean much to him. It could have been the Fire Lord...all the fish looked the same to him. He handed the fish over and took the money for it. To make conversation as he got the proper change, he passed on the news the fisherman gave him that morning. "So...have you heard anything on the avatar? I heard just this morning he's on Kyoshi Island."

The fire nation man nodded. "How interesting." he said, took his change, his fish and left.

The general who had been quietly listening almost gasped in shock and quickly made his way back to his ship.

That evening, Zhao sat at his table, ready for his dinner to be served when the man from the market delivered the news along with the plate.

"Perfect." he said with a cruel grin. "Tell the captains full steam to our new location- Kyoshi Island."

Everyone rose early that morning, the chief was being very accommodating, he had made room for them the previous evening in an empty loft in his home. They even bought breakfast to them- a long table was spread before them with plump cushions and every kind of pastry one could think of. A server had just set down the last tray of tarts when Aang cheered, "Alright! Desert for breakfast!" he grabbed two pastries, one in each hand and started taking bites of one after the other before he swallowed the first bite. "These people sure do know how to treat an avatar- right Zuko?"

Zuko was poking at a flaky pastry filled with small squares of brown stuff. "I prefer spicy foods…" he mumbled quietly. "My sweet tooth isn't that strong in the mornings…"

Momo had no problem with it- just like his young master- sweets were going missing one after the other. A fury paw would appear before diving down again, leaving less than before.

Aang polished off one type of pastry and grabbed another, "Katara, you got to try these!" he enthused, and put the one he took a bite of in her hand and grabbed another kind.

Katara took a bite and smiled.

Zuko shrugged and braved a bite of the pastry he had picked; the filling was a bit bitter- but still sweet. Although, he wasn't too fond of the pastry flaking everywhere.

Aang finally noticed one member of their party was missing. Sokka had been unusually quiet, but was unsurprisingly sulking by the window. Although, in actuality, it looked more like pouting. "Sokka, what's your problem?" Aang asked. "Eat!"

"Not hungry." he grumbled.

Zuko swallowed his bite, 'But you're always hungry." he deadpanned.

Katara smirked and said, "He's just upset 'a bunch of girls' kicked his but yesterday."

Sokka scowled, "They snuck up on me!" he said indignantly, his voice cracking.

"Right. And then they kicked your butt." Zuko quipped, dipping his pastry in a thick brown sauce that matched the same color and smell that was in his pastry- and the wonderful sent of cinnamon

"They got you too!" Sokka threw his hands at Zuko.

He shrugged, and for the first time they saw, spoke with his mouth full. "At least I got a good look at their leader before I was blindfolded." he finally swallowed, and then seamed aware of his bad manners and mumbled a quick 'sorry' before stuffing the rest of the pastry in his mouth.

Sokka made a surprised sounded that resembled a spluttering, incoherent exclamation, and a choking sound. "You what!?" his voice cracked again then shook his head, as if he was trying to physically regain his wits- "whatever- besides- sneak attacks don't count!" He stood up, grumbling, making his way to stalk out of the room. It was a string of nonstop complaints and mumbles. " _hurmph_...tie me up with ropes...I'll show them a thing or two…" he turned on his heal and stalked back to the table and grabbed an armful, of pastries.

Momo curled and hiss quietly- trying to protect his bounty.

"I'm not scared of any girls." he told them and looked back down to the table to grab even more sweets. "Who do they think they are any way?" He hardly paused, not expecting an answer. His arms were full and he stuffed one more in his mouth and left, "hmm...this is tasty…" they heard before he made it out the door.

Aang's bright morning mood was unpassed by Sokka's less than pleasant one. "What's he so angry about? It's great here; they're giving us the royal treatment."

Zuko couldn't hold back a snort- if only Aang saw the palace.

Katara, always the voice of reason said, "Hey, don't get to comfortable, it's risky for us to stay in one place very long."

Zuko poured tea for his friends and him to help wash down all the sweetness, "besides that, we have to get to the North Pole soon so I can...we-" he quickly corrected, glancing at Katara and smiling a little, "can learn water bending." seconding Katara's idea of leaving as soon as they could.

"I'm sure we'll be fine- this island and your uncle are the only ones who know the avatar is even back...and just look how happy we're making this place!" Aang looked out the window and pointed to the old Kyoshi statue. "They're even cleaning up that statue in your honor!" Aang's large grin didn't leave his face.

Zuko's face reddened slightly, "It...is kinda nice here...and the people are friendly, I'm just glad they excepted me as the avatar so quickly...especially since I'm fire nation."

Katara gave a kind smile, '"Its nice seeing you being a little more excited...or...accepting about being the avatar," she thought for a moment, "Okay, a little while longer- then we really should keep going."

They all agreed and Zuko brought his cup of tea to his mouth- ready to take a sip when a bunch of girls started squealing at the top of their lungs right outside their window, startled, Zuko jumped, and the tea splashed all over him. He growled in frustration and almost jumping to his feet to yell at the girls to stop making unnecessary racket- when Katara put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head, handing him a towel instead.

Aang stood to investigate and peered out, the girls yelling got louder.

Koko- the little girl who seemed to have turned into Aang's shadow yesterday called up to him, "Aang, come out side and play with us! We made up a game!"

All too eager to have fun, he smiled "Okay!" and jumped out the window.

Zuko grumbled as he tried drying the tea out of the short cores hair that covered his head now, and dabbing it out of his clothes. "Last night, I told Aang he was acting funny when all this 'fame' started, and he said he was 'just a simple monk' and wouldn't let it go to his head…"

Katara offered another towel when the one Zuko had wouldn't clean up any more. "yeeaah…" she said, drawing the word out, believing Zuko, but not quite Aang's claim of being a 'simple monk'….maybe a 'simple pre-teen monk with limited maturity' seemed like a closer resemblance.

Zuko stood, and grabbed one more pastry, "Well.." he said, "I'm gonna go make sure Sokka's not getting into trouble…" he grabbed his swords from the hanging nob on the wall, "and maybe see if I can find a place to sharpen these and practice safely, last night, all those little girls kept following me too close...I had to scale a building just to hide" he admitted the last bit reluctantly. "I'll see you later I guess." he said stumbling a bit over his words. "um...uh, bye." he quickly made his exit.

Zuko stepped out of the larger house and shook his head as he saw Aang's failed attempt to escape the girls on an air scoter that he tried to hold in mid-air- but slipped and fell to their grabbing hands below. They carried him off somewhere- probably to the thickest patch of snow they could find- who knew. He shrugged. _It's his problem._ he thought and continued his search for the grumpy water tribe warrior. He caught up with him quickly enough, and to no one's surprise, was still grumbling.

"Would you let it go?" he asked from behind him. Sokka jumped, and then scowled. "Tell you what; I'll spar with you, if you'll shut up. You have your...club...sword thing-" he said pointing to Sokka's odd looking weapon with a blade and ball on it.

"It's a club…" he said to Zuko like he didn't have enough sense to know water from fire. "My machete is in Appa's saddle." He didn't seem too thrilled with the idea of sparing in the first place- or it could have been he felt insulted about his tribes design for one of his favorite weapons.

Zuko scowled, impatient, "Whatever- you can still spar with it." They walked up the steps to the house that had been pointed out on their tour . They were told its where the warriors are trained.

Sokka peeked in then grinned, stepping inside and with a sarcastic bite said, "Sorry ladies didn't mean to interrupt your dance lesson."

Angered by his rude behavior- Zuko gave a harsh elbow to Sokka's side, "Sokka!" he hissed, "Enough."

His warning fell on deaf ears. "We were just looking for a place to get a little work out." Sokka started to make a show of stretching, and Zuko took a step back, closer to the door way, hoping to convey he hadn't meant to interrupt, and he had no interest in contributing to Sokka's sexist idiocy.

Suki held a straight face, only letting a slight- strained- polite smile line her lips. "Well...you're in the right place….sorry about yesterday; we didn't know you were friends with the avatar."

Sokka waved off her apology, "It's alright, I mean, normally I would hold a grudge- but seeing as you guys are a bunch of girls, I'll make an exception." he smirked.

Zuko's eyes only widened in disbelief- was he trying to be insulting, and _flirt_ at the same time…. _unbelievable…_ he thought and pinched the bridge of his nose as his temper started to flare- this was not how you made friends- he should know- he spent the better part of two years yelling at his crew for no reason.

Suki didn't seem to impressed with his act and laid a careful trap for Sokka to make an even bigger fool of himself. "I should hope so. A big strong man like you, we wouldn't stand a chance."

Zuko was briefly reminded of his younger sister- minus the unfeeling sadistic grin.

Sokka rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, his posture was the picture of arrogance, "True." he drew the word out, "but don't feel bad." he waved his hand in a dismissive way, as if he could wave off any ill feelings, '"After all, I'm the best warrior in my village."

Zuko couldn't hide the very -un-prince-like snort.

Sokka gave him an extremely rude hand gesture behind his back out of the line of sight of the girls present; Zuko fought the temptation to bend his hand back.

Suki still handled his idiocy with grace and cunning. "Wow..."she breathed, "best warrior hu? In your whole _village_?" The trap was set. "Maybe you'll be kind enough to give us a little demonstration." The trap was sprung.

Zuko watched as Sokka struggled to recover, after all, it would look pretty bad to back out now. He wanted a good seat- and, or, possibly out of the line of whatever 'sparing' they had in mind. Zuko still had a bruise from that stupid boomerang- even though it hit his helmet- the dent it made still hit his head. "Sorry-" Zuko interrupted really quickly, "just a quick question, but do you have any sharpening tools or sharpening stones in here?"

Another warrior answered instead of Suki. "Yeah, we keep them over here, this way." she walked him to a chest of drawers and opened it for him to take his pick before closing, and locking it once more, joining her warriors.

Sokka was still a spluttering, stuttering mess. "Well….I mean…"

Suki grinned and turned to her fellow warriors, come on girls, wouldn't you like him to show us a few moves?" They all giggled and nodded.

Sokka tried his best to look nonchalant. "If that's what you want." he said, his eyes flickering back and forth, "I'd be happy too." He was trying to pull a plan out of his ears- Zuko could tell. Sokka put his hands on Suki's shoulders, and made her step back up a step, like he could position her so he could give the ultimate attack. "Alright, you stand over there." he started to pull his arm into a position to strike. "Now, this might be tough, but try to block me." his arm snapped forward to hit her, but the edge of her fan hit him in the collar bone before he even toughed her. Sokka let out a strange squeak and a short 'Ow' before jumping back. "Good." he laughed nervously, "of course I was going easy on you." he said it like it was a casual confession.

Suki batted her eye lashes. "Of course."

Sokka sprung into 'sneak attack' mode. "Let's see if you can handle _this_!" he made to tackle her, and do a high kick, but she managed to use his momentum against him and push him back after he leapt in the air- he landed indignantly on his backside. He apparently realized they were trying to make a fool of him. "That does it!" his voice cracked a few times in his anger, as he charged for her again, it looked like he was aiming for a simple shove, but Suki quickly grabbed his arm and started to spin him around the room, tripping up his footing as she slung him around one way- then quickly changed his direction and spun him the other. Sokka yelled in surprise. She brought him to an unexpected stop, and when his leg came up off the ground as he tipped forward trying to right himself- she snapped off his belt and tied his wrist to his ankle. Now- with no way to regain his balance, or stop his fall, he hopped forward a few feet before falling- hitting his chin on the hard floor. Zuko almost felt bad as the girls giggled at his state of helplessness.

Suki dealt her final blow when she asked snidely "anything else you want to teach us?" all the girls giggled as Sokka blushed.

Sokka lifted his head a little, like he was looking for a way out. "I'm gonna go...over there." he nodded his head in the direction he wanted. He tried to crawl forward a few feet but only managed to wiggle a bit, his hand still tied tightly to his foot. "A little help...someone."

Zuko, as much as he wanted to help, thought Sokka needed this to help his little pride problem, and fix his issue with girls not being good enough. There were plenty of them in the room that would probably untie him if he asked nicely. "Sorry Sokka...I'm kinda busy." he scrapped a sharpening stone over his sword for emphasis. "I'm sure Suki would untie you if you ask her... _nicely_." he stressed. That way she was put on the spot a little herself.

If she didn't untie him out of spite, then it would cause some problems.

"But…" he whimpered...his eyes cut to the girls standing above him.

"Swallow your stupid pride and ask her...or you'll have to wait for Aang...or your sister. Who knows if Katara would even untie you, the way you acted yesterday."

Surprisingly, Sokka laid there in stubborn silence for a long time. It was rare he was quiet this long.

"Hey...um...Suiki?" he finally spoke up. The girls had gone back to practicing a few moments ago.

She stopped, and closed her fan. "yes?"

"Can you untie me now please?" he asked in a meek mumble.

"Okay." she said simply without further argument. She pulled one quick side of the knot she made and it unraveled, and Sokka thanked her and made a hasty retreat, she then noticed his wrist looked a little raw, and it looked like he had bitten his lip when he fell.

Zuko sighed and stood to follow. He wanted Sokka to swallow his pride- just a little- not feel absolutely humiliated.

Suki quickly stopped him, with a timid hand on his arm, "If he's hurt, I didn't mean to...I swear. I just saw his wrist looked a little red and-"

Zuko cut her off with a wave of his hand. "The only thing you probably hurt was pride. If you got too much- he'll get over it. It will be good for him. You'll see." Zuko said, leaving his swords behind.

Stepping into the square Sokka was nowhere to be seen, but Aang and the little village girls were staring up at the statue the villagers had worked so hard on that morning to repaint and repair.

"There she is everyone- Zuko in a past life…" Aang must have sensed his presence because he turned around a little, but broke out into a grin. "Oh, hey Zuko." he greeted.

A little girl that didn't even clear Zuko's hip said in a small, but cheerful voice. "You were pretty!" she told him, showing a large smile with a few front teeth missing.

"Um...thanks?" Zuko said, unsure how to respond to her praise. The kids were awfully cute...but a part of him worried about scaring them if he lost his temper...or for the even shorter and smaller children- stepping on them. At least his little sister he didn't have to worry about tripping over or stepping on her.

Aang turned and saw Katara at one of the fruit stands. "Excuse me for a second ladies." he said, and edged out of the little huddle the girls had surrounded him in. Zuko edged by them too, excusing himself as well.

"Oh hey." Katara greeted them with a smile. "When I finish here, can you carry this back to the room for me, it's getting a little heavy."

"What's that for?" Zuko asked.

"More supplies." Katara answered. "It will be nice to have some slightly bigger rations for a while."

"Actually, I can't right now." Aang said right away.

"What do you mean 'you can't'?" Katara quickly questioned.

"I promised all the girls I would give them a ride on Appa." Aang smiled, "Why don't you come with us, it will be fun."

Zuko and Katara were less than amused. "Watching you show off for a bunch of girls does not sound like fun." she turned back to the stall and started picking out more vegetables.

"But neither does carrying your basket." Aang pointed out.

Katara simply huffed. "It's not _my_ basket; these supplies are for our trip. I told you, we have to leave Kyoshi soon."

They were both surprised when Aang whined a little. "But I don't want to leave Kyoshi yet." he gave a goofy grin and put his finger on his chin, like he was deep in thought, " I can't put my finger on it...but there's something I really like about this place."

The girls giggled from their huddle, they were closer than where they left them. Koko stepped forward and stomped her foot impatiently, "What is taking you so long Aangy?"

"Aangy?" Katara questioned in a deadpan.

Aang didn't listen, just waved at the small girl, "Just a second Koko!"

Zuko rolled his eyes, "'Simple monk'? I though you said this 'Last Airbender' stuff wouldn't go to your head." Zuko said, poking Aang in his forehead, right at the tip of his arrow.

Aang angrily batted his hand away, stepping back a step. "It didn't." he argued, and at Katara's disgusted scowl and eye roll he continued, "Do you know what I think? I think you don't want to come because you're jealous." He said, aiming the barb at Katara.

"Jealous?" Katara questioned, angrily, her voice rising, "of what?" She violently stuffed an eggplant in the basket.

"Jealous that we're having so much fun without you." Aang answered.

"That's ridiculous." Katara spat. Zuko swore he saw her eye twitch in irritation. He held his hands out offering to take the basket. He was ignored.

"It _is_ a little ridiculous, but I understand." Aang said.

Katara gave one last irritated huff and stomped away.

"You can be such a brat sometimes." Zuko mumbled, following Katara, and stopping her. Aang scowled a little as Zuko took the basket and they walked back to the room together.

Aang's face fell as he looked to the ground and kicked a stone out of the way. The words stung a bit- like they were meant to. He wasn't allowed to dwell on it long as Koko and all her friends quickly drug him away for their flight on Appa.

Sokka stood outside the Kyoshi's hut for a long while- contemplating about what to do next. He sighed heavily, before approaching the door. He waited to be acknowledged, slightly hoping he would be ignored and he could walk away and forget this ever happened. But Suki looked up, making eye contact, she rolled her eyes.

"Uh….hey, Suki." Sokka mumbled timidly, coming in the room further.

He couldn't bring himself to be surprised when she was openly hostile- after all, this was the second time today he's interrupted her class. "Hoping for another 'dance lesson'?" she bit out.

Sokka looked at his shoes, shoulders pulled forward. He wasn't sure exactly what to say, he mumbled "No…" then tried to scramble around in his brain to find the right words."I…um...well, let me explain." he stumbled over what words he _did_ manage to find.

Too bad Suki seemed to have no problem not forgiving Sokka, or finding the words to show it. She was still acting very hostile, her eyes flickered to where he busted his lip earlier than quickly away again. "Spit it out! What do you want?"

Sokka's eyes widened for a moment, a hurt, resigned expression crossing his face. Not knowing what else to do, he dropped to his knees, and as if he was studying the floor or the tips of her shoes- the true position of humility- he said in a steady a voice he could manage, "I would be honored if you would teach me." he knew he meant every word. He hoped Suki did too.

"Even if I'm a girl?" her voice still had a bite, although, not as harsh as before, still in his vulnerable position, he couldn't help but wince.

He kept his eyes averted away from hers. "I'm sorry if I...when I insulted you earlier." he took a shaky breath. "I was...wrong."

Suki folded her arms in front of her. It was normally unlike her to be this mean, especially when given such a humble apology, and after how bad she had beaten him earlier, she looked down at him, letting her stiff face paint create an unreadable mask. "We normally don't teach outsiders. Let alone _boys._ " She let her tone imply, just a little, she may have thought his gender was the inferior.

It did nothing to deter his begging. He raised his head slightly, eyes pleading. "Please make an exception." his hands tightened slightly at the fabric at his knees. His head lowered once more. "I _won't_ let you down."

Suki relented much sooner than she normally would have- if this had been any one else- she wasn't sure how far he was willing to beg- she was expecting him to kneel into a *kowtow any moment. And she had to admit- he had done enough to prove he was sorry, and she knew she was being mean. "All right." she said in a much more friendly tone, smiling slightly as his face lit up. "But you have to follow all of our traditions."

"Of course!" He said eagerly, finally pulling him self to his feet, apparently ready to start.

Suki had one more laugh left. "And I mean _all_ of them." she smirked. The other warriors giggled and dismissed themselves for a break.

Sokka simply gulped.

A while later he was standing on their practice floor in full Kyoshi Warrior garb- along silk green dress, boots, face paint, all complete with a simple head piece.

"Do I really have to wear this? It feels…" he paused, trying to think of a better word- failing, and letting his shoulders slump in defeat a little mumbled, "girly…" it was more a statement than an insult.

Suki just smiled, "It's a warrior's uniform, you should be proud." She said, and then began explaining just how symbolic every detail was to them. "The silk threads symbolize the brave blood that flows through our veins. The gold insignia represents the honor of the warrior's heart." Sokka eyed the shiny button sewed into the cuff to keep it secure around his wrist. The ideas were kinda nice.

He lifted his head, and squared his shoulder. "Bravery...and honor…" he said, slight wonder coloring his voice.

It happened to be right at that moment Aang poked his head in. His smile broadened. "Hey Sokka." He snickered. Sokka's face colored under the paint, and his shoulder dropped. "Nice dress!" At least he was quick to leave.

"You're gonna have to focus," Suki said, "Don't let anyone distract you. After all- distractions is what gets people hurt when they are fighting." She drew her fans, and held them up, her stance ready, "Alright, draw your fans, and follow my movements exactly."

It took Sokka a few tries to draw them out properly, and a few more tries to get them to open without dropping them. The thick gloves were not making it easy.

"Easy-" Suki laughed. "It's not about speed right now- it's about precision."

They worked through many forms- Suki moved easily and with skill while Sokka clumsily followed.

He kept tripping over the dress- the edges of the rugs, and his own feet. The more he failed- the more his anger grew. He fought the urge to throw the fans aside and storm out. "This is hopeless!" he yelled, after he had fallen again, how you are supposed to do anything standing on one leg for that long- and with such a heavy _uniform_. He left the fans on the floor as he walked to the other side of the room to get some air by the window.

"You're a lot like me when I first started here you know." She grabbed a canteen from one of the far corners and joined him by the window. "Only, I had to teach myself from scrolls and what I remembered the other warriors doing."

Sokka looked up confused, "What do you mean?"

"We're all orphans."

She said it so simply, like she had just informed him, it was indeed, sunny today. Sokka's shocked expression turned sorrowful. "I'm sorry...I didn't-"

"Of course you didn't know, I wouldn't expect you too." She gave a small soft smile. "It also makes us closer to Kyoshi in a way, she was an orphan too you know, and took girls in who were not treated right and taught them to protect themselves. We all bound together on our own."

They took a seat below the window.

"When I said I was the best warrior in my village…" Sokka started in a mumble, "I mean I'm the oldest… _warrior._ All the other boys are not even ten yet."

Suki frowned. "Where are all the men?"

"Safe. I hope. They all left two years ago. They're fighting in the war. All that left was the women, children and my elderly Gran-Gran."

Suki smiled slightly, "Why didn't the woman train?"

Sokka made a small face, "there wasn't exactly a need, per-say. We needed things mended, cooked, and cleaned, rebuilt all the time. The South Pole isn't exactly the easiest place to grow up." Suki was drinking water from the canteen when he reviled the location of his ice covered home.

"Wait, _The South Pole…."_ She questioned. After spraying Sokka slightly with water as she forgot to swallow.

"We didn't mention that?" He asked. Before using the dress sleeve to mop the water off his face with a shrug. He was surprised the make-up wasn't on the dress.

"No, everyone thinks you guys are from Whale Tail Island or some other island close by." She blushed a little and handed him the canteen so he could have his share- even in the winter, when they practiced they worked up a sweat.

"So..um...what happened to the other warriors? Oyaji said you have done well to stay out of the war so far...but you said they are all gone."

"This wasn't exactly the fire nation pulling up on our shores wreaking havoc...this attack was from a small colony nearby called Chin. A few extremist who thought Chin the Conqueror was murdered by Avatar Kyoshi. They came down here and massacred a lot of people, but mostly our warriors because we are the ones that carry out Kyoshi's legacy." Suki brushed the tears from her eyes. "The warriors and I, we hid under the bridge all night. We weren't the only village hit, but since we have the largest port on the island we got the biggest hit."

"I'm so sorry." Sokka whispered. "How old were you?"

"They were all about ten. I was twelve." She cleared her throat a little bit."Okay...enough small talk." she pushed herself off the floor and offered Sokka a hand. "If you want to get better Mr. Warrior, you need a _lot_ more practice."

Zuko set the basket down on the table next to their supplies. They still had quite a bit of food left, but they were being very careful it didn't spoil on them. The last thing they needed was for one of them to get sick on spoiled food. Zuko looked up to see Katara staring out the lofts window. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"The longer we stay here...the more I fear something is gonna happen..."

"We've only been here two days, or, a day and a half really, but I agree, we should hit the road. And soon."

"Do you think we can convince Aang to leave tonight?" Zuko nodded. "We kinda have too...the only problem is, he's kind of our ride."

Katara scowled, "Doesn't he realize we need to get to the North Pole!?"

"I know….and I need to learn water bending as much as you want to- believe me. Perhaps we should give him a few hours' notice and then pack it up and get out of here. It should give him enough time to say goodbye to his little fan club." Zuko sighed angrily. "And we can hope it's not gonna be like this in _every_ town we stop in."

"He needs to grow up." Katara grumbled, grabbing a bowl from their supply pile and filling it with water from the barrel in the corner. They made their way out of the loft into the main visit area where they had breakfast that morning.

They stayed in awkward silence for a moment, snacking on the left over sweets from breakfast- surprised there was any considering Momo horded a lot of it under the table.

"I'm gonna go and practice some of my forms- haven't done that in a while. " Zuko said, turning to leave.

"Can...I watch you fire bend sometime? Besides at my village." She gave him a small smile as he blushed. "I've only seen it used in violence…" she said with a softer tone, then added as a second thought. "And to start our camp fire. I'd like to see it...how it comes naturally." She thought maybe it would even give her an idea on some tricks for water bending.

Zuko was frowning deeply. "It's always violent." he muttered walking away. Katara's face fell. After he left Katara simply squared her shoulders and grabbed her bowl of water. She had her own bending she needed to work on first.

She found a spot on the floor and knelt there, her bowl of water in front of her. She took a breath to focus her mind and tried to will the water out of the bowl into the air. She had a nice stream of water flowing up and out of the bowl. Once she got a good rhythm of pushing and pulling the water she was interrupted. She heard Aang lean against the door and she rolled her eyes, waiting for whatever he had to brag about this time.

"Katara," Aang started, with a hint of over confidence, "Remember how the Unagi almost got me yesterday?"

Katara didn't stop her practicing, but she rolled her eyes upward once more and grumbled "Yeah."

"Well...I'm gonna go ride it now." she could practically hear the arrogant grin. "It's gonna be really dangerous."

Katara just wanted to practice- she wasn't interested in his boyish game at the moment. "Good for you."

"You're not gonna try and stop me?" he was surprised.

"Nope. Have fun." she really hoped he was making a bad joke...he honestly wouldn't be that stupid...she tried me make herself not care- Aang could take care of himself… she hoped.

Her attitude sparked a little defiance. "I will." he said haughtily, crossing his arms.

Katara's irritation only grew. "Great."

Aang's annoyance mirrored Katara's, he couldn't figure out why she _didn't_ care. "I know it's great."

"I'm glad you know." The water was getting harder to keep aloft.

"I'm glad your glad."

"Good!" she lost control over the water and she balled her fist in frustration.

"Fine!" Aang shouted, throwing his arms down from where they were folded across his chest earlier. He turned to leave, only hesitating just a moment to frown sadly at Katara's stiff posture, never looking at him.

Once she thought he was gone she sighed sadly and turned around. She thought about trying to practice some more, but she knew she wouldn't be able to focus. Might as well and try to find Zuko. And hope Aang doesn't do anything stupid. Maybe he will have an idea to snap Aang out of his idiotic phase.

Sokka was busy moving through the forms that Suki and showed him- he was only half steady, his movements unsure and shaky, but he had his jaw set- determined.

Suki stood off to the side, silently impressed with his progress. "You're not going to master it all in one day." she said, not unkind, "Even I'm not that good." she admitted.

Sokka didn't break stride, "I think I'm starting to get it." He worked his way through a full set, ending it with a yell of exertion as he threw the fan as hard as he could. "Tah!" the fan sailed out the door and it TWHACKED into a tree. The slight disturbance made the branches release the snow they held. The fan was buried. Suki held back a chuckle. She had her head poked out the door where she watched the fan disappear in the snow. It wasn't the first time it happened.

"It's not about strength." she said with a genuine smile. She turned back to Sokka. "Our technique is about using your opponent's force against them," she demonstrated with her hands pushed one fist against the other." Loosen up a little." She retracted her fan and pointed it at Sokka, a silent instruction for him to get in a battle stance- which he almost instinctually followed. "Think of the fan as an extension of your arm. Just wait for an opening and then-" she made to lunge at him- only to show the proper way of how to do it- except, she was surprised, when her arm was pulled, her fan taken from her grip and she was pushed back on to her backside.

They both stared at each other in wide-eyed surprise. A smug smile passed Sokka's face and he crossed his arms, trying not to let it grow into a smirk. "Hmm…"

Suki's blush was visible under her makeup and she quickly scrambled to her feet. "I fell on purpose to make you _feel_ better." she said, her blush deepening.

Sokka laughed and pointed at Suki, "I got you!" he hopped a little in his excitement, "Admit I got you!"

She grabbed his finger and bent it backwards he immediately started trying to move out her grasp, trying not to squeal in discomfort. "Okay, it was a lucky shot." She released his hand and he pulled away shaking away the pain she inflicted on his fingers. She picked up her fan, and let it fall open in her grasp, "let's see if you can do it again…" Sokka picked up a spare fan and mirrored her stance as they readied themselves for a sparring match.

Katara found Zuko as he was finishing up. Even though it was still cold enough for snow to still be lying around, his robe and borrowed parka was off to the side, and he was pouring sweat.

Katara was glad she brought her water pouch with her. "Thirsty?" she asked, holding it up.

He was out of breath as well so he merely nodded. After a few sips he made a slight face, "Not that I don't appreciate the water, but we might want to change it every now and then-" at her aggravated expression, he tried to make quick amends- "I just mean so in case we're stuck somewhere and this is the only water we have, it won't taste like whoever we ended up fighting the previous week." too hopefully make her happy he took another swig of the stale water that tasted faintly of the smelly thieves they had encountered at whale tail island.

"You're probably right…" she sighed, then turned to the cost line for a moment, she could see the blue waves in the distance, but no Aang- hopefully it meant the sea monster was a no-show. "I'm a little worried about Aang…" she admitted.

Zuko reached for his robes to put back on. "What is he doing now?" he asked. It's been proven- the sooner they leave, the sooner the kid will be back to normal- for Aang anyway.

"He's gone to try and ride that sea monster that tried to kill him yesterday."

Zuko groaned, "Idiot…" he slung the parka over his shoulder, "okay...let's go talk some sense into him." Katara nodded and followed.

On the beach the girls were all waiting in the sand, they were all growing very impatient, Aang was out a ways, treading water to stay afloat, and growing colder by the moment. Some of the girls on the beach had taken to leaning against one another, laying in the sand, or, like Koko, sitting with her elbows resting on her knees, and her chin resting on her palms. "What's taking so long?" she whined.

"I'm sure it will be here any second!" he called, he thought for a moment trying to think of some way to entertain the girls' growing boredom. He pulled the marbles out of the pouch at his waist he had forgotten to take off earlier "What about this!" he spun the marbles in his hands like before.

One of Koko's friends rolled her eyes, annoyed, "Not that again. Boring!"

One of the girls whispered to Koko, "I'm bored, and if I don't leave now, I'll be late for dinner. "

"Me too." said another.

Koko stood up and brushed the sand off her dress, then waved to get Aang's attention, "Where's Unagi? It's getting late."

The girls were all whispering about 'I have to go' and 'mama and papa will be worried.' As they stood as well and started to walk away.

Aang yelled and waved from the water, " Where're you going? Don't leave!" he pleaded.

Koko held her hands up around her mouth so Aang could hear her from shore, "Sorry Aang! Maybe next time!" she yelled, and then turned to catch up with her friends.

Aang sighed sadly and let himself sink a little, and blew bubbles out of his nose. Then he saw the blue parka-and Zuko- come out from behind the trees. "Katara!" he yelled brightly. "You showed up!"

He could hear the slightly concerned hint to her voice. "I wanted to make sure you were safe. You really had me worried." she admitted.

"Back there you acted like you didn't care." Aang said, hopping the hurt didn't leak in his voice too much.

Katara hung her head a little. "I'm sorry…"

"Me too. I did let all that attention go to my head...I was being a jerk you guys…"

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Just get out of the water before that thing really goes come!" he yelled.

"Or before you catch your death out there you big jerk!" Katara joked. It caused everyone to crack a smile.

Aang just smiled broadly, "On my way!" he started to swim his way to shore.

He was about half way to shore when, like Zuko feared, the Unagi finally made its appearance. Katara gasped sharply.

"Aang! Get out of there! Behind you!" Zuko managed to yell.

Aang paused in his strokes to look back, the large fin was already towering above him and what he guessed was the head was pushing him out of the water. Aang yelled as he tried to avoid where he guessed the teeth were. As it rose out of the water even further, he managed to hang onto whatever part of the sea creature he landed on. He started to wonder exactly how this was a good idea to begin with. He looked around and only saw fins- he yelled again once the face was staring at him front and center. It was bigger than he thought it was….it opened it's mouth and sprayed water at him like a dragon would with it's fire- Aang held on to one of the fins as the water pressure tried to push him off. It lunged at him- to avoid the large possibility of being eaten he just jumped as high as he could, all thoughts of air bending were nonexistent as gravity did its job to pull him back down, as he fell, he grabbed on to the only hand hold he could find- the great serpent's whisker. He yelled in fear as he swung back and forth- he was way too close to the monsters teeth for any comfort at the moment- the serpent's breath hit him like a tone of week old fish- the edge of the tongue grazed him as it licked is teeth. It started to swing its head to get rid of the burden, and meal that was out of reach. Aang yelled in fear once more.

"Hang on Aang!" Katara yelled as she watched the young boy being slung around like a rag doll.

"I don't think he has much say in that." Zuko told her, standing there ready to help...and how- he wasn't exactly sure.

Aang was tossed around some more before he finally lost his grip and flew through the air- limbs and body twisting, before he landed with a painful sounding SPLASH. He floated back to the surface, and groaned, before starting to sink back down.

"Aang!" Katara and Zuko shouted, before they both dashed into the water to try and get to him before he either drowned, or was eaten.

Zuko was thankful he hadn't put his parka on- Katara was a ways behind him once he dove down to the spot where Aang had disappeared. He hadn't gotten far thankfully, but Zuko could already sense trouble when he still wasn't moving when they got to the surface. Zuko's eyes widened when the serpent reared back getting ready to dive in to his dinner. He felt something grab the back of his shirt, and a large wave was suddenly between his friends and the monster, he, Aang, and he hopped Katara all skidded across the water and landed in a shallow ditch that must have been uncovered by the low tide. They held onto each other was the wave surrounded them, and then drained back into the sea. They heard the serpent spraying areas behind the rocks- then suddenly, nothing. But it wasn't long before the smell of burning coal, and the large sound of an engine reached them. Zuko and Katara paled as they peeked over the rocks.

"This isn't good…" Zuko mumbled. "Get down low- I'll see who it is."

Katara crouched down close to Aang, who's head lolled a bit as they tried to hide behind the rocky shelf.

"I want the Avatar alive." Said a voice from the rhino's back. "Then I want us to head full steam ahead for the fire nation."

Zuko paled and gritted his teeth in anger as they passed.

"Admiral Zhao…" he said with a low voice, full of contempt.

He slid down and saw Katara trying to wake Aang.

She gently shook his shoulder, "Aang...come on, wake up…" she looked around nervously, and then ran her fingers up his chest, she was surprised when the water in his lungs obeyed and came out his mouth. He quickly coughed out the access and opened his eyes.

"Katara…." he rasped in a pain full voice. She only smiled softly. "Don't ride the Unagi...not fun."

"Glad to see you're okay Aang- but we have bigger problems.." Zuko whispered. "I can't be seen- not by him, I'll sneak back to the village and warn them. Hurry back as soon as you can. I'm gonna get Appa ready to go- we'll have to leave, _now._ " he hissed. He started to scale the rocks carefully then turned back for a moment. "Oh, and Aang...pretend to be the avatar." He whispered. "I have a plan."

Sokka blocked another blow as Suki lunged forward with her fan. She smiled at him, impressed. "Not bad," she admitted. They both startled when Zuko burst through the back door.

"Fire benders are here- they are dangerous- we have to go- they are hunting the Avatar- they don't know it's me- I don't have time to explain- but the important thing is to play along." He grabbed his swords and without another word and disappeared.

Not even a second later, Oyaji ran into the hut, breathless and eyes wide in alarm, "Firebenders have landed on our shores!" Suki made to follow immediatly, "Girls, come quickly," he ran to spread the word.

Sokka stood there for a moment- "Hey I'm not a-" he rolled his eyes, "Oh whatever!" and ran outside to join the other warriors.

The warriors and everyone else had the children and all the other villagers tucked safely away in certain parts of the village.

Aang had just finished guiding the young girls to small cave, guarded by some of the men and a select few Kyoshi warriors. Koko wouldn't let go. "Aang- stay with us! I'm scared."

"I know." he knelt down to her level, he gave her a small, but serious smile "but I have to go help everyone else. You're safe here." he patted her head, and unwound her arms from around his waist and flew away on his glider.

Zhao had made it to the abandoned center of the village. All was quiet. The warriors were poised on rooftops, and the only sound was the scarce breaths, and the chimes ringing in the breeze.

"Come out Avatar!" the voice of the apparent leader commanded. Aang cringed from his hiding place- he really hopped Zuko's plan worked. He gripped his glider in a white-knuckled grip. "You can't hide forever!" From Aang's hiding spot, he saw Zuko, who had quickly changed into full fire nation garb, with light armor, and a helmet. He gave a wait single, and put a finger to his lips, making him know to stay silent.

Aang gave a sharp nod.

"Find him…" Was all Zhao said.

Aang turned back to watch the soldiers start down the street. He peeked out a little further.

Zuko made his appearance known. "Admiral Zhao!" He shouted, his stance was proof he was ready to fight, "I got here first." he growled.

Sokka and Suki were behind another wall, watching. "This can't be good," he watched fire start to fly between the two benders. Things were getting dangerous.

For everyone .

"I guess training's over." Sokka hissed as the other Kyoshi warriors sprung out to attack. Zuko cleverly avoided the warriors -keeping his focus on Zhao.

Sokka- mistaking Zuko's uniform for the other solders, for a moment found himself on his back as he was shoved to the ground, Suki- thinking he was in trouble found the same fate.

Only- she hit the wall first. Zuko cringed at her and mouthed a quick sorry before replacing his mask and turning to the deserted street- now ablaze. " Nice try Avatar, but these little girls can't save you." He hoped Suki would forgive the barb- he wasn't known for his kind words as far as these firebenders were concerned.

Zuko turned to the sound of Aang's voice. "hey!" he almost sounded angry- perfect. "Over here!"

"Finally!" Zhao whispered, then barked, "guards- arrest him."

Aang quickly help up his staff, ready to defend himself.

Zuko managed to start the spar first while the other warriors distracted Zhao. Aang managed to hit Zuko with a large gust of air that sent him flying all the way over the top of the burning Kyoshi statue- Aang threw his glider in the air and left to find Appa and Katara. She and the bison were behind a house, ready for lift off. Katara was quickly covering Zuko with a tarp and their other belongings. Aang knew he was a fast runner- but not _that_ fast.

"Sokka hurry up!" she called.

"Just a second." he hissed before ducking down to talk to Suki.

"Look what I brought to this place…" Aang mumbled sorrowfully.

"It's not your fault." Katara said kindly putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yes it is." Aang said hanging his head, but leaning into the hug, "These people got their town destroyed trying to protect us."

"Then let's get out of here." Zuko hissed from under the tarp peeking out. "It was a miracle I made it over here unseen- Luck is limited- let's _move_."

"He's right," Katara said.

"Zhao will follow us, and since there's no sign of me, he'll think I have a head start in 'capturing the avatar.'" Zuko whispered, trying to lay down lower in the saddle. It was hard pretending to be luggage.

"I know it feels wrong to run, but I think it's the only way." Katara said.

Aang sighed sadly. "Okay."

They turned back to Sokka and Suki. "Sokka!" Katara called.

By the barn the whispered conversation sped to a close.

"There's no time to say goodbye." Suki said quickly, trying to push Sokka towards the bison. He didn't budge.

"How about 'I'm sorry'?"

"For what?" Suki asked, confused.

"I treated you like a girl when I should have treated you like a warrior." Sokka said.

"I _am_ a warrior." Suki whispered, then leaned forward to kiss his cheek. "But I'm a girl too."

Sokka blushed under the makeup.

She stood quickly, drew her fans, and moved to leave their hide out, "Now get out of here-I'll hold them off," and she took off into the streets.

Sokka stared after her for a moment. Then ran up Appa's tail like a ramp and as soon as he was in the saddle Aang called, "Yip Yip!"

They heard the Admiral almost panicking below. "Follow them! Don't lose sight of them!" His voice rose even louder. "Back to the ship!"

Up in the sky Appa was gaining speed, and Zuko dared to peek out from under the tarp, but he didn't trust the soldiers below to sit up just yet.

"I now it's hard but you did the right thing. Zhao would have destroyed the whole place if we had stayed. They're going to be okay Aang." Katara smiled at him, then at Zuko.

She turned her head back to Aang, who was sitting too stiffly on Appa's head. Without a word, he stood and leapt off into the sea below, poised in a dive.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Katara yelled shrilly moving to peek over the side of the saddle; she exchanged a quick worried glance with Sokka.

Appa slowed waiting for his rider to return. The Unagi made its second appearance that day, only this time, Aang had its whiskers in a tight grip, and he forced its head back, making it shower the village with its ocean spray. Making it look like a torrential down poor on the solders still trying to get to the ships with one less rhino.

The buildings, beyond repair, were no longer burning, and the statue of Kyoshi still stood tall.

In his hut over looing his village, Oyaji mumbled a' thank you' to the Avatar and his friends.

After the serpent slug his head to rid it's self of the burden, Aang jump and landed in Appa's out stretched paw, the bison started to ascend once more. Aang scaled the side of his pet and pulled himself into the saddle, soaked to the skin. "I know- I know. That was stupid and dangerous." Aang sat down and tried to get the water out of his ears.

Katara just shook her head and smiled fondly. "Yes. It was." She quickly pulled him into a hug. He just smiled and blushed. Zuko rolled his eyes and climbed out from under the tarp. Sokka's appearance registered for the first time.

"Sokka….why are you wearing makeup...And a dress."

"Don't ask…" he mumbled, using his sleeve to rid himself of the paint. Only half of it came off. "ewwww...It won't come off. Katara help." he moaned. "You're a girl- you know how to get this stuff off."

"Consider it pay back for your comments yesterday. Your pants are mended- they are in your bag. " Katara said with a sneaky grin. "I'm sure the makeup will wear off eventually."

Everyone laughed at Sokka's misfortune.

Down below the Unagi slipped back under the sea- hoping not to be bothered any more.

 **A.N.**

 *****Kowtow: kneel and touch the ground with the forehead in worship or submission as part of Chinese custom. *google definition***

 **I feel like I may have made Suki overly harsh- even though she was being kinda harsh in the show, I could only guess what she was thinking, since we rarely get a good look into other character's minds.**

 **I would like to thank everyone for the WONDERFUL reviews, favorites, (votes for wattpad) and follows I have gotten so far. They really make my day.**

 **You are all are amazing.**

 **I would like to set up a Q &A page on my profile, there are a few right now, but I have gotten a few repeats. Most of the time people are asking about what 'ships' the story will have. Yes it is an AU- some will be the same, some will be different. I'm not going to say anything for certain right now, besides they have all just met. I haven't put relationship brackets here for a reason. ;) I will answer guest reviews on my profile. I prefer PM's and will always try to reply to them ASAP. **

**Chapter 4 is in progress. It will be out soon. I hope.**


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